Wary and Racy are variants of a Linux distribution developed by Barry Kauler, the creator of the remarkable, small but powerful, Puppy Linux. There is much more information about the Quirky concept on Barry's own site here and on his blog. You can find a link to download the latest build on his blog. Wary/Racy are personal projects reflecting his own ideas and priorities. This site reflects my preferences and priorities!
Some of us also like using Barry's personal creations and modifying them for our use. I like the minimalism of Wary and Racy to which I add the programs I need including Wine running some essential Windows programs such as Quicken and DigiGuide. All Wary builds are experimental tests of new features or linux kernels ( some of which are more successful than others!) but I particularly like Wary 5.1.4.1 which has proved to be very reliable on my hardware.
Wary has lower hardware requirements which make it suitable for older computers. However, Wary 5.1.4.1 using the 2.6.32.45 kernel is highly recommended for all computers including multi-core. The Wary 5.1.4.1 live-CD with 2.6.32.45 SMP enabled kernel can be downloaded from :
Md5sum: 54ac0bd090f6de3b941426489745fc9f
You can use the iso file to burn a live-CD and test it on your PC without any alteration or risk to your existing operating system. If you like it you can then do a frugal install to your hard disk using GRUB if you already have another Linux distro (or GRUB4DOS if your existing OS is a version of Windows.)
If you have more recent hardware you can also try Racy 5.2.2 which has the 3.0.7 kernel :
Md5sum: 387e90319b389cda05b72e4dd2dc1b41
You can find much more information about Racy and Wary on Barry’s blog including information about later versions which I may not list here because I do not particularly recommend them.
If you are interested in a distribution with active community support it would probably be best to visit the mainstream Puppy Linux site and the Puppy Linux Discussion Forum. You will see that there are many variants of Puppy Linux catering for different needs.
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