News from the LiveCD World
Informit.com has a great overview of Linux LiveCDs. It starts by explaining the different uses of LiveCDs, and overviews many of the popular LiveCDs available today.
And if that wasn’t enough, specialized live distros can run from business card-sized CDs, USB thumb drives, and some that are intended as rescue CDs for virus-ridden PCs. There are even live routers and firewalls in case you want to use an older PC as your main connection to the Internet.
MozillaQuest magazine has part 2 of their Cheat Knoppix 4 to Improve Performance series. This one involves a very large USB flash drive.
All things cool are considered reviews PCLinuxOS and enjoys the friendly interface.
OSDir has screenshots of the new Damn Small Linux.
A new version of Damn Small Linux is out, with severall application changes and some interface improvements.
MozillaQuest Magazine tweaks the performance of Knoppix and lets you know what they did.
As part of the legwork for our stories involving the Knoppix Linux live CD and Live DVD, we gave the Knoppix 4.02 live Linux CD a spin on a somewhat older laptop.
BeOSNews.com tries to install the Zeta LiveCD to a hard drive and learns much in the process.
I’ve been working off-and-on writing a review/overview of the Zeta LiveCD, but one topic in particular kept distracting me: the question of whether or not the demo CD can be installed and run from a hard drive partition.
The Los Angeles Times has a nice writeup on Damn Small Linux.
Apart from being compact and fast, however, DSL Linux may change the way you use your computer. For maximum speed to rehabilitate an old PC, you can install it like any other operating system, directly on your hard drive, either for exclusive use or as an alternative to Windows. You can also start and run it from a mini-CD, even if the host computer has Windows on it. So when you do visit grandma, you can take your DSL Linux with you.
ITworld.com has an article about keeping data safe by separating it from the computer’s operating system. Live discs make an appearance.
The other alternative that I keep handy for emergencies, is to boot completely from CD-ROM or DVD.
Kantipur Online has a review of NepaLinux. NepaLinux is aimed at the “common Nepali” looking to use a computer without needing to learn another language.
As desired, NepaLinux can either be booted from its live CD or installed on the hard disk itself. The operating system requires a 64 MB RAM, 2 GB hard disk space and a Pentium II or higher processor, and can co-exist with Windows operating system.
All about Linux has a review of PCLinuxOS 0.92. PCLinuxOS is a nicely made LiveCD and installable distribution that not everyone is aware of yet.
PCLinuxOS is released as a live CD which also can be installed quite easily on to the hard disk.
DesktopLinux.com posted an article a few days ago about using a LiveCD as a primary OS, or in other words, never installing. This is something that is increasingly becoming more plausible, as memory prices decrease having a LiveCD load into memory becomes faster in many cases than an installed OS, and as long as you still have some kind of media to write to, you can install apps and save documents without fear of losing them from rebooting.
However, many liveCD distros can be used as a day to day desktop without ever installing them to your hard drive.
ServerWatch has an in-depth article on Bart PE. It’ll let you know what Bart PE is capable of, before spending the time to create your own.
BartPE stands for Bart’s Preinstallation Environment. Currently in version 3.1.3, it was created by Bart Lagerweij, a Dutch programmer, who, for a number of years, has been providing the Windows community with various software packages sharing common purpose: feature-rich operating environment invoked via removable bootable media (e.g., modular and highly customizable CD-Rom Boot Disk).
All about Linux has a review of the OpenSolaris based BeleniX LiveCD. The review also points out some advantages to running Solaris over Linux, which look likely to stir up some debates.
I had always wanted to try out Solaris OS ever since Sun released its code under an open licence and renamed it as Open Solaris. But even though open solaris had its own website, downloading a binary image was an entirely different matter and was not an easy proposition.
IBM’s developerWorks has another thorough article about LiveCDs. This time it involves modifying LiveCDs and turning them into screensavers for Windows.
There is sufficient free and open source software available nowadays to enable Linux to install and run as a Windows screensaver. This article shows you how to construct an appropriate CD or DVD, and in doing so, demonstrates that the “free” and “non-free” sides of the software Grand Canyon are not so far apart after all.
Linux.com brings us a brief review of Tao Live.
Tao Live CD is a live CD based on rebuilt Red Hat Linux source RPMs.
Marcel’s Linux Walkabout has an article about klik on their website.
The inspiration for klik has its origins with Knoppix (and Kanotix). In fact, the original name for klik was KLIK (all caps), which stands for “KDE-based Live Installer for Knoppix Kanotix”.
DistroReviews.com has posted impressions, or a short review, of the new Ubuntu Linux 6.04 Flight 2 release. Included with the review are screenshots.
Ubuntu has released its second test point, dubbed “Flight 2”, of Dapper Drake, Ubuntu 6.04. Scheduled to be finalized in April 2006, this test release has buckets full of new features for both the installed version, and LiveCD versions, which are available for download. Some of the new features of the Ubuntu LiveCD include:
For a better description and screenshots, check out the official description.
OS News has a review of the Amiga Forever Premium Edition, which comes with a LiveCD, although this article did not talk about it much.
You can boot into this emulator in two ways: you can launch it from Windows, or use it as a live CD. The latter uses KX Light (a modified version of Debian/Knoppix) to boot the Linux version of UAE, running AmigaOS 3.x.