News from the LiveCD World
DistroWatch has some info on the new Knoppix 4.0.1 DVD, including a suggestion to wait for the next version, 4.0.2, to be released because of a UnionFS bug.
With the LinuxTag edition it took us about 7 minutes to get from the boot prompt to the full KDE desktop, but the new release gets there in half the time on the same system.
tuxmachines.org has another review, this time of the OnebaseGo 3.0 LiveCD. Overall the reviewer appreared to like it.
The feature that most amused me in OnebaseGo is “Docking”. Do not be confused by that name. It is actually “remastering” the LiveCD in an easy way. The “docking” gives the ability to remaster the OnebaseGo Live CD with your own settings and software without requiring a hard-disk installation.
tuxmachines.org reviews the new GoblinX Mini LiveCD. Lots of screenshots to get a feel of the unique desktop.
The desktop is a unique experience due to the original theme and color scheme chosen by the developers.
Blog of Helios has A Subjective Look at PCLinuxOS. Don’t forget the “subjective” part, read the first two comments for more on this.
There is no struggling to find codecs and Java packages, you no longer have to install mplayer plugins and place individual components into the proper folders… In the majority of cases, it works.
I saw it first on Distrowatch. The offical Knoppix 4.0 is out!
Tuxmachines.org has a quick review of the updates in the latest Austrumi LiveCD. Austrum is a 50MB LiveCD which includes Firefox and a nice looking desktop layout.
Flexbeta has and article talking about Knoppix, and what it can be used for. More of an introduction to Knoppix than anything else.
DistroWatch has links to the SLAX-based LiveCD Klax with the ultra-new KDE 3.5 development release. By far the easiest wat to test KDE 3.5.
Engadget has news and a link to a video demonstrating IBM’s SoulPad, a virtual computing environment that allows you to save your computing session, with all your open programs, and move to another physical machine and start where you left off. The presenter says it is based on Knoppix, but in the video it really looks like Windows XP is the OS running after Knoppix boots (of course it’s simple to get Linux to look like XP, so that could explain the green and blue task bar).
Gnuman.com has a review of Mepis Lite. Check out what it’s all about here.
Mepis is a simple and easy to use Live-CD based distribution that can be easily installed on your hard drive. As you can see in our review of Mepis SoHo Server that Mepis is really trying to put together the right moves to knock off the current and most popular distro in Ubuntu.
DesktopLinux.com has some news on MEPIS, including a new testing release.
InformationWeek has a four page review of BartPE. BartPE allows people to create LiveCDs from their personally owned copy of Windows. I’m not sure how this affects the licensing, so you may need to do a bit of reading if you’d like to stay legal. Another strange thing about this review is how it continually praises the features provided by BartPE, while neglecting to mention other LiveCDs like Knoppix, which easily has 100x more ability.
BartPE lets you start or stop file sharing on the PC you’re working on; set or reset the Admin password; or even invoke XP’s powerful “Remote Desktop Connection” facility. Combined, these abilities facilitate moving files to or from a distant PC, or using repair and recovery tools located on another system.
Linux Enterprise Magazine reports on MEPIS and answers the difficult question, what is the difference between SimplyMEPIS and ProMEPIS.
The second difference is that MEPIS is distributed as a live CD. This gives people a chance to test the distribution without having to install it on their hard drive. Users can make sure that MEPIS will work with their hardware before committing.
Linux.com reviews the latest Slax LiveCD. Check it out to learn what Slax provides.
The first time I used it, Slax restored my faith in my old clunker of a Toshiba laptop. The distribution ran (and even booted) faster from the CD-ROM drive than Windows did from the hard disk. But as I began to get a feel for Slax and use it to browse the Web, listen to music, and the like, I didn’t feel like Slax had sacrificed usability for agility. This fine balance alone would make Slax an interesting and noteworthy distro, but it has even more tricks up its sleeve.
Amnews.com has an article about Puppy Linux. I’m not familiar with this source, but it looks like LiveCDs are becoming more and more mainstream.
Puppy can be run from a live CD or installed on a hard drive, flash drive or ZIP drive. When booting from a CD, Puppy does not require a hard drive because it can save everything back to your CD. In order to do this, however, a CD burner is required.