You all know that I absolutely love Linux Puppy. I've tried Puppy years ago and instantly loved it, loved the precise art of fitting so many great, useful programs and tools into such a tiny package. And now, there's a new reason to love it even more. Version 5.

The most recent release of Puppy Linux, version 5.1 “Lucid Puppy” includes some significant changes such as binary compatibility with the Ubuntu 10.04 packages, easier package installation with Quickpet and Puppy Package Manager, a new Simple Network Setup utility and more. I dove into Puppy 5.1 over the weekend, took some screenshots, and made a video showing a few of Lucid Puppy's features.

It's been a year and a half or so since my last Puppy Linux review. Then, I tested Puppy 2.1. Today, Puppy has reached version 4.1 - and boy, has it grown.

How things have changed today and the demand for retro gaming is reflected in the amount of emulation projects there are in progress. Puppy Arcade aims to provide all your retro computing desires. It’s based on tiny TurboPup Xtreme, which itself it a highly optimized version of Puppy Linux.

Puppy Linux 5.0 is built from Ubuntu Linux 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) binaries, so it’s…er…pet name is Lucid Puppy. Like a lot of other things about Puppy Linux, the name is cute and adorable. I felt like giving Puppy Linux a dog bone and a pat on the head when I started using it.

On occasion I have a need for a tiny, lightning fast Linux distribution to boot into in order to check various issues on a machine. Either that or I just don’t want to monkey around with someone else’ data. Either way, I will often grab for either a CD or flash drive containing my favorite “micro” distribution, Puppy Linux.

Scott Jarvis sent us info on his just released Puppy Arcade 5, a Puppy Linux flavor with a retro video game emulation based on TurboPup Xtreme (arguably the fastest Puppy derivative).

Barry Kauler is back at the helm of the Puppy Linux project, and he just released version 4.3 of the popular lightweight Linux distribution. Puppy Linux 4.3 is a massive upgrade from the 4.2 series, with almost all the components updated or replaced.

By now, you might have noticed that I'm a big fan of Puppy Linux. I wrote about this tiny Linux distro in Linux (Pro) Magazine, and extol its virtues at any given opportunity. It is the distro I'm running on my workhorse ASUS Eee PC 701 4G netbook, and it helps me to stay productive not only in airports, cafés, and hotel rooms but also at home.