Puppy Linux
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 35 of 63 Linux distributions by recommenders
A small, fast Linux distro that boots into RAM and runs from a USB stick or CD, which people remember fondly as a way to learn Linux on older hardware.
A small, fast Linux distro that boots into RAM and runs from a USB stick or CD, which people remember fondly as a way to learn Linux on older hardware.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Boots into RAM from USB
“Puppy Linux does seem to boot to ram! Huzzah. I don't get the impression that many will let you remove the USB drive after boot.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Finnix” “Such a beautiful thing to boot into these pendrive distros and discover the world of Linux through them”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Slax: Live Pocket Linux” “while I like booting from RAM”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide” Good for learning Linux
“I'm very fond of Puppy Linux, it's how I learned a lot of Linux skills as a preteen!”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Puppy Linux” “Such a beautiful thing to boot into these pendrive distros and discover the world of Linux through them”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Slax: Live Pocket Linux” Small download, good for live CDs
“since it was such a small download (250ish MB) and I had limited bandwidth. Good memories.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “which I could never get into but was good for live CDs”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop”
Other Linux distributions people recommend
The four most recommended other Linux distributions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 560 | 493 | 53% | 12 | 10 yrs116 owners | — |
| Debian | 552 | 191 | 74% | 13 | 10 yrs62 owners | Approved |
| NixOS | 454 | 112 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs69 owners | Approved |
| Fedora Linux | 437 | 131 | 77% | 12 | 2 yrs72 owners | Approved |
| Puppy LinuxThis page | 14 | 4 | 78% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
14 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“AntiX and Puppy Linux are a bit too rough, in my opinion.”
“while I like booting from RAM”
“Puppy Linux, with a full WM, is completely usable with a single gig of ram.”
“it's now my new favourite”
“I was just reacquainting myself with Puppy Linux, DSL, and TinyCoreLinux a couple weeks ago to sandbox an LLM agent in a VM. Good stuff.”
“I got Puppy Linux 4.0 on a CD, booted from a CD, and installed to a 1gb USB stick”
“Puppy Linux does seem to boot to ram! Huzzah. I don't get the impression that many will let you remove the USB drive after boot.”
“puppy which adheres to the root-only approach needlessly religiously”
“Puppy Linux should do this IIRC.”
“Such a beautiful thing to boot into these pendrive distros and discover the world of Linux through them”
“I'm very fond of Puppy Linux, it's how I learned a lot of Linux skills as a preteen!”
“Puppy Linux was pretty sweet back then, I used it for a Gecko machine for a few years”
“since it was such a small download (250ish MB) and I had limited bandwidth. Good memories.”
“which I could never get into but was good for live CDs”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.