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18 Live Linux CDs -- In A Row 412

Posted by timothy from the that-doesn't-mean-they're-fighting dept.
prostoalex writes "OSNews carries "a quick roundup" of 18 (they are not kidding, eighteen) live Linux distributions. Among those who made the list: Basilisk (based on Fedora), BeatrIX (based on Debian/Knoppix/Ubuntu), Berry Linux (based on Fedora), Damn Small Linux (based on Debian), FreeSBIE (based on Free BSD), Gnoppix (Knoppix/Debian plus Gnome, now merged with Ubuntu), Kanotix (modified Knoppix/Debian), Knoppix (the first big live CD, based on Debian), Luit (Debian/Xfce, rox filing system), Mandrake Move (based on Mandrake), Mepis (Debian), Morphix (modular Debian), PCLinuxOS Preview (a Mandrake fork), Sam (Mandrake/Xfce), SLAX (Slackware), Suse 9.1 and 9.2 (rpm-based), Ubuntu Live (Debian), Xfld (Debian/Damn Small Linux and Xfce). To call it a review would be a stretch, although a helpful paragraph on each operating system's claim to fame is provided."
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18 Live Linux CDs -- In A Row More

18 Live Linux CDs -- In A Row

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  • Lacking a Major Player? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SpottedKuh ( 855161 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:27AM (#11547723)
    Interestingly, they have two versions of Suse reviewed, yet no Gentoo?

    • Re:Lacking a Major Player? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Having a "gentoo-based livecd" is kind of an oxymoron - gentoo, whose claim is that its a targeted install for the specific machine, now has to boot everywhere, and lock people in to using only the apps on the cd, which is not part of the Gentoo Philosophy [gentoo.org] - which is (in one word,) flexibility.

      OTOH, It would provide a nice base to create a livecd, however, given that only necessities can be added in and it can be stripped down a whole lot (like compiling the system with dietlibc or even uclibc.)
    • Also, wouldn't FreeSBIE be considered a "dead" cd?

  • Gentoo... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:27AM (#11547724)
    Lemme fire up catalyst real quick and give you a few more to play with...

    Seriously, for those who'd like to play with creating their very own custom Live CD, Gentoo's catalyst makes it really easy. It takes a bit of time, and could use some better docs, though.

  • So which one... (Score:5, Funny)

    by skids ( 119237 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:28AM (#11547725) Homepage

    Has the scariest startup screen to go along with the words "Hey, you'll loves this, I just wiped your system and installed Linux!"?

  • Article Text (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why use a Linux Live CD?

    Well, there are four main reasons.

    * You want to test drive Linux (or that particular distribution). You want to give it a look, and see what programs it offers.

    * You want to test your hardware. Will it work with Linux?

    * You want to install Linux to your hardware. If you like it, you might want to make the leap right then.

    * You want to do real work.

    What does real work consist of? Usually, it means:

    * Surf the web, meaning "look at html pages." On occasion, it's also handy to hav

  • What we need (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:31AM (#11547738)
    Is a really, really big bittorrent of all 18. Somebody get cracking on that.

  • more than 18 (Score:5, Informative)

    by frovingslosh ( 582462 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:33AM (#11547752)
    Not a review (either), but this website http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php?sort= &showonly= [frozentech.com] list a lot more than 18 live CD's (and even it is not complete).

  • FreeSBIE? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If calling it a review is a stretch, what is calling FreeSBIE a Linux Live CD?

  • chart, please! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by js7a ( 579872 ) <`gro.kivob' `ta' `semaj'> on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:33AM (#11547754) Homepage Journal
    Who would take the trouble to try so many distros and not bother to summarize their findings in tabular format? Someone with the sorely lacking proce capability of Mr. LaRue, evidently.

  • Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Propagandhi ( 570791 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:34AM (#11547762) Journal
    Does anyone stop to think that there may be too many flavors of Linux for the average user? Consider this, if you will: Joe User, sick of cleaning the spyware and virii off his Windows box for the bazillionth time reads about "Linux" in the Times/on Cnet/wherever. Naturally, he googles it, and ends up with all 18 of these live distros, a ton of kernel related stuff that he doesn't understand, and a gazillion news articles reviewing things he knows nothing about.

    I have RTFA, btw, and it was pretty approachable, but it still didn't make it much easier for the user to pick out something to replace his E-Mail checking/Web Surfing/Occasional Media playing (pr0n) computer. Perhaps the Linux community should get together and make a serious effort at a unified "desktop" launch. Personally, I think it'd go a long way towards getting more people off XP and involved in Open Source, all these fractured distros aren't really helping.. /2 cents
    • Most likely you'll get redhat or Suse near the top of the list. The number probably isn't too big of a deal, as the majority of distributions are essentially irrelevant and miniscule in comparison.

      What'd be nice is if there was a set standard between all distros for file location, system layout, base installed libraries, universal package format, standard config tools, and a universal format for configuration text files. LSB should help with some of these, but I'd like even more unity.

    • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:48AM (#11547819) Homepage
      Perhaps the Linux community should get together and make a serious effort at a unified "desktop" launch. Personally, I think it'd go a long way towards getting more people off XP and involved in Open Source, all these fractured distros aren't really helping.

      This seems to pop every once and again, in different varieties: "there's too many distros/desktop projects/widget sets/web browsers/Hello Kitty squid cookies to choose from. Why can't we have just one?"

      A few questions:

      * Who, exactly, would do the picking? Based on what criteria? And who would decide that person/organization actually was a good choice to pick an alternative?

      * What did you have in mind for enforcement? Selective assassinations of developers and users that refuse to go along?

      Users pick different distros/desktops and so on because they have different needs and different preferences. And developers develop a particular option for all kinds of reasons - becoming popular may not even be on the list at all.

      So, let's say "we" decide on Redhat with XFCe as the new standard for Linux. Will that mean that Debian will close their mailing lists, Novell immediately liquidates itself and all gnome and kde developers quietly rm their development directories and take up the torch of XFCe? Nope. If anything, an attempt to mandate one option out of many will antagonize a lot of people and make that option less popular then before.

      • Yes, but as the grandparent post states.

        It's too confusing for Joe 6-Pack to be able to decide on a linux distrobution to use. Lets Look at Joe's thoughts.

        "I've had to remove even more Viruses and spywares off my computer. I thought that Anti-Norton-Virus was supposed to protect me." (Note, as someone who helps Joe 6pack too often, yes, they call it the anti-norton-virus, instead of NAV)

        "What's this Linux thing I read about?" (Followed by a search from one of his pay-per-click toolbars. See's ads to i

        • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:4, Insightful)

          by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @02:26AM (#11548223) Homepage
          So, again, who is going to do the ellimination?

          Who is going to say to, for example, the Mepis developers that they are not welcome to develop their distro anymore? And what do you suggest when they say "f**k you" and redouble their efforts, and most everybody else sees you as a posterior opening for trying to dictate what other people do with their time?

          As for Joe:

          Joe will get whatever flavour his geeky friend Billy recommends him - the same friend that in practice will work as support and mentor until Joe is up to speed on his new system. It really doesn't matter which distro Billy hands over; all the modern ones are good, and the informal support network is a much more important factor than any details of the particular distro anyway. Or, he will buy a desktop with Linux preinstalled and will run whatever came with the machine.

          By the time Joe really discovers the wealth of alternatives out there, he does so because he's been delving deeply enough into the Linux world that he is perfectly capable of choosing himself.

          People who aren't interested in computers aren't stupid, or dense, or uneducated. They just aren't interested in computers.

        • History of industry (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          When automobiles (you know, cars) were first invented and becoming popular, there were, literally, hundreds of automobile manufacturers in the US alone. Hundreds. How is the average (rich) Joe to choose?

          Fast forward to now. Auto manufacturing is a mature industry with only a few US manufacturers and a few more world wide.

          Linux has been around, as a viable desktop OS for, oh, let's be generous, 5 years. Because it is not created and controlled by a monopoly, it is still a vibrant, changing market place
        • So what are you saying? We should forcefully shut down any developers who make their own distro?

          I don't care what Joe does, I want my computer to do what I want it to do. I don't care what MS does, as long as they don't stop me from doing what I want to.
        • It's actually a little easier than all that. Joe six-pack picks up Red-Hat Linux at the CompUSA because he heard "it's the most popular" or "it's the best" or some other such thing. He loads it up (terrifically easy install) and starts to work.

          Is Red Hat Linux "the best"? Who knows, but it is one of the most talked about in the media and it is on the shelf at CompUSA so why not give it a whirl?

          OR...

          Same reasoning, but he ends up downloading Fedora for free from one of the mirrors after going to the Re
        • Well, I checked on this - a Google search for Linux points to http://www.linux.org as the first hit. Searching on MSN for Linux returns http://www.linux.com and http://www.linux.org in that order.

          If you go to linux.org and click "Download", it brings you to a page that mentions a) that you don't have to install Linux to the hard drive and b) that Knoppix is the most popular Live CD.

          I'm not saying it's not a valid point - people are easily confused by "this Linux thing" if they haven't done any research bu
      • So, let's say "we" decide on Redhat with XFCe as the new standard for Linux. Will that mean that Debian will close their mailing lists, Novell immediately liquidates itself and all gnome and kde developers quietly rm their development directories and take up the torch of XFCe? Nope. If anything, an attempt to mandate one option out of many will antagonize a lot of people and make that option less popular then before.

        An absolutely valid (and good!) point. However, there is some merit to having one good di

    • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dmaxwell ( 43234 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:49AM (#11547823)
      Just how do you propose to cut down on the proliferation? These pieces are all laying around for anyone to scratch his itch with. Try your "Google criteria" with Windows. You will get an equally confusing raft of crap that pops up. The only reason there isn't a decision on which Windows for most people is that Dell or Gateway decided for them.

      I suppose a would-be Windows refugee could ask the geek that lives across the street or see if there is a LUG in town. The only way Linux can be what you want is if order is imposed on it. If order is imposed, Linux would cease to have what attracts so much development. Fast and competing development is how this has to work or it won't work at all.

      I even maintain my own Knoppix builds (not for DL unfortunately...they have Captive drivers and MS fonts installed). The reason I can make a Knoppix that the stock one doesn't provide is because anyone can roll their own. Nothing has been done to make this difficult for the sake of having a unified market. A chaotic ever evolving Linux may never be able to unseat the likes of MS. A staid controlled Linux never will because very few will want to develop for it.

    • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kfg ( 145172 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:55AM (#11547868)
      Does anyone stop to think that there may be too many flavors of Linux for the average user?

      Yes, and decided the point has validity.

      "Perhaps the Linux community should get together and make a serious effort at a unified "desktop" launch."

      No, they shouldn't.

      KFG
    • I absolutely agree. Linux developers/companies/etc need to unify on some standards (good luck) or they'll never be accepted.

      A new user moving from Windows shouldn't have to know (or care) if they use KDE/Gnome/Fluxbox/etc or 2.4.x/2.6.x. They should just be able to use a machine and be done with it.

      Good luck getting support, though. How many times you think people will get a reasonable response when grandma calls Earthlink support to get help and, after telling them that she has LiiNucks, getting the stan

      • A strawman! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        "A new user moving from Windows shouldn't have to know (or care) if they use KDE/Gnome/Fluxbox/etc or 2.4.x/2.6.x. They should just be able to use a machine and be done with it."

        Don't you see, new users don't need to care! Pick any good, general distro and install it for them. Don't talk about KDE vs. GNOME. Don't talk about 2.4 vs. 2.6. They will use the one that is installed and be happy!

        You (and many Linux advocates) create an issue that does not matter to the new user, and then claim that it hampe
    • That is why Linus should help make a distro as the "unofficial" distro of Linus and promote that to newbies. The others can compete with more advanced option or tech-support.

    • Oh, I dunno (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jd ( 1658 )
      When you consider that different people want different things out of their computer, it makes perfect sense to have many flavours. That's the same reason there are so many car manufacturers, and indeed why many of those produce multiple models at the same time.

      A given car manufacturer may easily produce a subcompact, a compact or mini, a regular car, a hatchback, a saloon and/or an SUV, with anywhere from zero to infinite customizations and extras, in budget, standard and luxury price ranges.

      True, it wo

    • You think people write Linux distros for the user? Get real! Most distros (especially Live CDs) are just exercises in technocoolness. "Hey look! It's a complete OS on a CD! Isn't that cool?"

      I'm not knocking serious distros or Live CDs, which actually do serve a useful purpose. But most do not.

      Back in the 70s, when most stereos were strange expensive bulky things with an ungodly number of vacuum tubes, there were High Fidelity fanatics who could bore you silly arguing over what was the best preamplifier

    • I think this point is not valid when talking about LiveCDs...

      Since you're not installing anything, you could have one for all the use cases possible (with some more "all-around", like knoppix)

    • An "average user" likely looks for what he's heard of, and buys a set of Red Hat disks.
    • Does anyone stop to think that not everyone is making linux distros to take over the world and impose their view of what a desktop should be on every other computer user. Linux isn't the be all and end all. Its not even the ultimate for everyone who considers themselves an IT professional, what makes you think that it is good for everyone to have one distro, and only one distro.
    • " I think it'd go a long way towards getting more people off XP and involved in Open Source"

      I agree on some of the things you are saying, but do you honestly think that the general public really gives two shits about open source?

      Will they save money?

      Its it easier to use?

      Can they do everything they need to do for fun and for work?

      These are the things people care about, not open source.
    • Does anyone stop to think that there may be too many flavors of Linux for the average user?

      No. I run Lesbian [lesbian.mine.nu] but a lot of people wouldn't be ok with running an operating system based on the male interest in female homosexual relations. An extreme example, but there are many like it.

    • Too many brands. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Vo0k ( 760020 )
      On the other hand, there's way too many brands of coffee. I go to a supermarket and I stand in front of a shelf with coffee for 7 hours, unable to decide. In the morning I go to a resturant to have my morning coffee, they hand me a menu, and I see 15 different brands. Before I choose one, they excuse me, they are closing and it's evening. I even planned switching to tea because of that problem, but once I entered a chineese tea shop and nearly died from dehydration.

      My friend says "Why don't you just pick o

  • Error (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CypherXero ( 798440 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:34AM (#11547764) Homepage
    Why is FreeBSD listed? It's not Linux.

    • Re:Error (Score:2, Insightful)

      by SaidinUnleashed ( 797936 )
      Because it /is/ a live CD, and it's actually pretty nice, if your hardware is supported.

      But it barfs on new and cutting edge hardware.

      i.e. no netcard detection, improper clock speed detection, etc. It still works, just not as well as it could.

      on a personal note- woo! DSL! ...but not a very flattering review of our distro.

      It's really not that confusing. Most people get the hang of it quickly.

  • FreeBSD? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Justin205 ( 662116 )
    OSNews carries "a quick roundup" of 18 (they are not kidding, eighteen) live Linux distributions.
    ...FreeSBIE (based on Free BSD)...

    Since when is FreeBSD a Linux distro?

  • FreeSBIE is not Linux (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SirCyn ( 694031 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:37AM (#11547783) Journal
    FreeSBIE is based on FreeBSD and should not have been included in a Live Linux CD Roundup without special mention.

    I suspect that the author is not familiar with FreeBSD, and assumed it would be the same as Linux. In many ways FreeBSD is similar to Linux, but the fact that he could not get Printing or Wireless running tells me he really didn't know what he was doing. Both of these tasks would take me 15 minutes.

    On a last note, this is only the second release of FreeSBIE, and it's based on the somewhat criticized 5.x line. Problems of one kind or another should be expected. Give them a few more releases and I'm sure they'll have the bugs worked out.
  • I don't know about you folks, but the whole Linux distribution thing is not generating the sort of excitement and enthusiasm it used to for me. Maybe because I started using OS X ... ?
  • ... 18 live CDs based on unix-like OSes, or 17 live linux and one live BSD.

  • Please find me a liveCD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) * <mrpuffypants@gm a i l . c om> on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:48AM (#11547821)
    Here's what I want:

    - A linux liveCD without any X server installed whatsoever
    - DSL doesn't count, since it has to hack a bunch of things up to work within 50MB
    - If possible, i'd like it to be debian-based

    Any ideas?

    I've tried re-mastering Knoppix over and over but it seems like the minute I uninstall KDE/X the whole system craps out.
  • Long before Knoppix, Linuxcare had a 50 MB bootable Debian image that was really, really slick. Unfortunately, with only 50 MB, it certainly wasn't meant as anything other than a cute trick/rescue disk -- I'd say that Knoppix definitely qualifies as the first big-time "Joe User" bootable Linux CD-ROM.
  • ...using one of the live cds...

  • In a row? (Score:5, Funny)

    by IntelliTubbie ( 29947 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:51AM (#11547844)
    Try not to run any Linux distributions on the way to the parking lot! Hey, you ... get back here!

    I'm not even supposed to be here today.

    Cheers,
    IT

    • Re:In a row? (Score:3, Funny)

      by LGagnon ( 762015 )
      My Linux distro is like a truck. Berzerker!
      Would you like some making fsck? Berzerker!
      My Linux distro is ticking clock. Berzerker!
      Would you like to fsck my /dev/cock? Berzerker!

    • Re:In a row? (Score:5, Funny)

      by madmancarman ( 100642 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @02:15AM (#11548193)
      Imagine instead of Dante and Veronica, a conversation between Klaus Knopper and Pamela Jones of Groklaw:

      PAMELA: That was Gentoo.
      KLAUS: Why do you call him that?
      PAMELA: Linus made it up. It's a live linux CD thing.
      KLAUS: What do you mean?
      PAMELA: After he boots a live CD, he likes to download and compile new binaries from source. It's called gentooing.
      KLAUS: He requested this?
      PAMELA: He gets off on it.
      KLAUS: Linus can be talked into anything.
      PAMELA: Why do you say that?
      KLAUS: Like you said - he gentooed him.
      PAMELA: Linus? No; I gentooed him.
      KLAUS: Yeah, right.
      PAMELA: I'm serious...
      KLAUS: You booted that guy's live CD?
      PAMELA: Yeah. How do you think I know he liked...
      KLAUS: But...but you said you only installed three distros! You never mentioned his!
      PAMELA: That's because I never installed his!
      KLAUS: You booted his live CD!
      PAMELA: We went out a few times. We didn't install, but we fooled around.
      KLAUS: Oh my God! Why did you tell me you only installed three distros?
      PAMELA: Because I did only install three distros! That doesn't mean I didn't just live-boot with people.
      KLAUS: Oh my God-I feel so nauseous...
      PAMELA: I'm sorry, Klaus. I thought you understood.
      KLAUS: I did understand! I understand that you installed three different distros, and that's all you said.
      PAMELA: Please calm down.
      KLAUS: How many?
      PAMELA: Klaus...
      KLAUS: How many live CDs have you booted?!
      PAMELA: Let it go...
      KLAUS: HOW MANY?
      PAMELA: All right! Shut up a second and I'll tell you! Jesus! I didn't freak like this when you told me how many distros you installed.
      KLAUS: This is different. This is important. How many?!
      PAMELA: Something like seventeen.
      KLAUS: WHAT? SOMETHING LIKE SEVENTEEN?
      PAMELA: Lower your voice!
      KLAUS: What the hell is that anyway, "something like seventeen?" Does that include mine?
      PAMELA: Um. Eighteen.
      KLAUS: I'M EIGHTEEN?
      PAMELA: I'm going to class.
      KLAUS: Eighteen?! My girlfriend booted eighteen live CDs!
      RMS: In a row?

  • Where is d y n e : b o l i c ? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Artemis3 ( 85734 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:54AM (#11547861)
    dynebolic [dynebolic.org] is not debian based, its not knoppix based, its an original project! Meant for multimedia 64mb ram machines, and the xbox.

    While knoppix each day has less and less apps, this one is getting more and more. And the machines which typically hang with knoppix (or knoppix based), even using all the "no" options, dynebolic loads happily. Not to mention 64mb ram machines, thankfully window maker based desktop for us in poor countries where these kind of machines abund.

  • So how many of these can... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by smartsaga ( 804661 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:54AM (#11547862)
    replace a windows server that does file sharing, web server, ACLs, backup, that also can partition a hard drive, can authenticate using active directory, network configuration, email server with a minimal graphical desktop, that fits on a miniCD that if it is ever hacked all you do is restart the computer and the server is back to it's "clean" read only state.

    If you have a "live" CD then updates take as little as burning the updated CD and rebooting the server with it. Configuration files can reside on a floppy to avoid unwanted changes, facilitate backups, etc. Processes can run on sandboxes to avoid total system compromise in case of a hack attack.

    I mean, how many out there? Domainix sounds good but still needs a lot of typing. Not easy enough to brag about infront of windows only people. Slax has an add-on for samba and it is small enough... But how many out there??

    If there would be one that does all that.. I would even pay for it!!!

    Have a good one.

    • Make one yourself! All you need is a 10GB partition and 2GB swap (Google cache of howto): http://tinyurl.com/4chb9
    • You can put LIDS on such a live CD for intrusion rejection. Instead of booting from a physical CD, use PXE to pull the .iso from a private network. A server-oriented distro will fit in a 25-50Mb compressed filesystem. E.g. any member of a diskless cluster of LIDS-enabled reverse-proxy web servers can detect an attack, reboot from PXE and be back online in short order. You gain flexibility by having the boot image(s) on the private network (which can itself be running a live CD).

      Have done this from scra

    • Re:So how many of these can... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @02:35AM (#11548252)
      You don't want a liveCD; you want a tool to create a customized liveCD. Something like Catalyst [gentoo.org], for instance.

      That way you could have all (and only) the features you want, and you could go ahead and put your configuration files and served websites and whatnot on the CD itself instead of a floppy.

  • repeat after me.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by naelurec ( 552384 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:54AM (#11547865) Homepage
    FreeBSD is NOT Linux!!

    Seems like ever since Distrowatch started tracking FreeBSD, everyone seems to think that FreeBSD is just another Linux distro.

    The Linux community should tar and feather those who mix up ye unholy non-GPL software with the almight GNU/Linux distros!! Down with Distrowatch! Down with OSNews and James LaRue!! hehe..

  • 18 live linux CDs! my computer ran 18 live linux CDs! ...in a row?

    hey! try not to recompile any kernels on the way through the parking lot! hey... get back here!

  • Gentoo Live CD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by colonslashslash ( 762464 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @12:59AM (#11547884) Homepage
    NavyNOS is actually a pretty good Live CD based on Gentoo. I've not used it a great deal, but enough to tell you that the default WM is fluxbox with a sleek theme and background, and it comes with an installer script to make a Gentoo HD install alot quicker for those who are concerned about it.

    GUI frontends for partition editing, portage (Porthole IIRC) and the Gentoo file browser are there by default on top of the usual suspects and a few extra net/security apps.

    We have a torrent up for it here if anyone is interested:
    The Linux Mirror Project - NavyNos 2005.01 torrent [tlm-project.org]

    Homepage here:
    http://navynos.linux.pl/ [linux.pl]

    This is the only Gentoo based Live CD that I'm aware of, if anyone knows of another, please enlighten me.

  • Linux? (Score:3, Informative)

    by NEOtaku17 ( 679902 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @01:02AM (#11547893) Homepage
    If anyone is looking for a Unix alternative to Linux I definitely recommend trying FreeSBIE. You can learn the way of the BSD without messing with your current install.

    Surf on over here [freesbie.org] for the torrent file.

  • The ability to have an entire operating system work fairly well off a cd without having to load anything on the hard drive is an impressive feat. I have had a look at a couple of live distro's that i though would of met my needs but there are still one thing lacking that would be really nice to have especially on the ones that are designed specifically for a graphical work station. The thing that I would love to see is the inclusion of KPovModeller plus povray rendering engine. If this was included then I
  • I'm looking for a minimalist distro w/ a faster boot time. I don't need 99% of the apps on many distros ... I would just like one w/ firefox to do on-line banking and shopping.

    I've been usin Slax and a few others 250 MB but often it takes over 5 minutes to load. This is, virtually the same result on a P3 800 w 640 MB RAM to a 3 GHz A64 w/ 1 GIG RAM. The CD drive is a Lite-on combo @ 40 x or higher read speed.

    Ideas?

  • DSL (Score:2)

    by sconeu ( 64226 )
    Had a cluster I was setting up. Didn't have a list of the MAC addresses to set up the DHCP server on the master node.

    Popped a copy of DSL into a USB CDROM, and BAM!

    Luckily, it was only a 10 node cluster....

    But DSL booted up quick fast, and found the onboard ethernet. Ran ifconfig, and I was done.

    I really like it.
  • So, wait, Gnoppix and Ubuntu are... what now? The Gnoppix page isn't exactly informative.

    What exactly happened, and what does it mean to those of us looking to try one of their live CDs?
    • Beats me. Seems like they will merge (or only be different in branding) once Andreas releases a stable version based on Hoary. He now works for Ubuntu/Canonical, but his current stable version still is Warty/Morphix-based.

      I got the same offer from Mark, to more-or-less merge Morphix and Ubuntu, but decided not to do it. Oh well, free world et al. And it means one liveCD less to try out (either one or the other :)

  • Basilisk (based on Fedora)

    Okay, so it's not OS X but "kills you when you look at it" is exaggerating just a bit and not exactly the best impression you want to give people :)

    Honestly, when it comes to looks I've seen far [slashdot.org] worse [slashdot.org]!

  • Ricky was a young penguin, he had a heart of ice.
    Lived 0 to 255 and coded his fingers to the bone.
    Just barely got out of school, came from the edge of Stanford.
    Fought like a router so no one could take him down.
    He had no patents, oooh no good at home.
    He surfed the 'net a soldier and he fought the world alone
    And now it's

    18 and live you got it
    18 and live you know
    Your crime is time and it's
    18 and live to go
    (repeat above)

    TCP in his heartbeat, his veins burned HTTP.
    It kept his browser running but it never kep
  • Are any of these proven working with Atheros AR5212 chipset cards, notable the the D-link DWL-AG520? In hostap mode? and stable? Because that's what I've been trying to set up today.
  • Missing on that list is "Snøfrix [skolelinux.org]" (just in Norwegian), a Live-CD to introduce Linux to Norwegian school kids.

    Snøfrix has gained quite some popularity recently, as quite a few libraries are now distributing Snøfrix, in addition to it being mentioned in the largest Norwegian TV channel (NRK), on a program dedicated to protecting consumers right -- this time comparing Linux to Windows.

    The name is a mix of "Knoppix" upon which is it based, and "Snøfrix", the name of the 11 (or so) year old
  • Interesting how Linspire Live [linspire.com] didn't get any mention. It's a formidible force in the desktop market and certainly deserves mention even if it doesn't exactly conform to some peoples' ideas of a "true" GNU/Linux distro.
  • GNUStep LiveCD [linuks.mine.nu] - the coolest live CD of them all. Boot this bad boy up and enjoy the experience...
  • I tried to boot knoppix and it took half an hour to decompress itself and then came up in 640x480x16 color mode. Is there any distro that goes easy on my imaginary Intel hardware? Ideally, it should have GNUStep with development tools. I want to see if I can let more people run my programs :-) DVD would be Ok. I have lots of space for ISO images.

  • coLinux sorely overlooked (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jago25_98 ( 566531 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMphonic.pw> on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @04:22AM (#11548653) Homepage Journal
    coLinux runs inside a Window in Windows. When people are trying Knoppix they could be running coLinux.

    http://www.colinux.org/

    I use it to serve my ext3 & reiserfs partitions.

    Cavats I know of at the moment:

    - TAP virtual interface very slow
    - not quite a double-click install but close
    - virtual filesystem doesn't shrink and grow automatically

  • Knoppix (Score:3, Informative)

    by Siener ( 139990 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @04:52AM (#11548756) Homepage
    The original, and in my opinion still the best. They seem to get better with every release.

    Old versions of Knoppix didn't work properly on my laptop. Recently I tried it on my laptop again, and I was amazed. I basically tested how quickly I could get everything working.

    About 15 minutes later I had succesfully set up my local network, internet via ADSL, printer, Samba, and Cd-Writer. As an encore I connected to the internet through GPRS via my cellphone, via the ir port - something that I have never been able to do in Windows.

    Best of all: I saved the configuration to a USB key, so now everything is set up correctly as soon as I boot.

  • plan9 boots from CD (Score:3, Informative)

    by DrSkwid ( 118965 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2005 @05:54AM (#11549014) Journal
    If you feel like trying it out, it boots from CD anyway, no need for a special LiveCD

    http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/ [bell-labs.com]

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