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A Subjective Look at PCLinuxOS

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.

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Knoppix 4.0 Changelog

Knoppix mirrors seem to have a new knoppix-dvd folder on the same level as the knoppix folder, so you won’t be able to find the download from the mirror site without going up one level. Here’s the changelog, straight from a mirror.

* V4.0DVD-2005-08-16
– Project split into DVD and CD edition
– OpenOffice 2.0 build 104 (english/german)
– Lots and lots of package updates
– Bugfixes: floppyconf, knoppix-installer
– Kernel 2.6.12(.4) update
– KDE 3.4.1 from Debian/experimental
– correct agpgart module detection
– tulip PCI id fix in hwdata
– ralink and madwifi driver updates
– hostap added
– removed “slow USB block device” (ub) option (problems with usb-storage reported)
– chmod cdrecord/cdrdao to no longer run suid root because of changed kernel ioctls
– Added development packages: eclipse, mono
– Added most kde-i18n langiages from unstable
– Added knoppix books and Open Source Jahrbuch
– Added m23 software distribution system
– Added Knoppix menu item for setting root password
– Added AVM modules for DSL and ISDN cards
– Added ISDN/DSL configuration packages from Kanotix
– Added alternative desktops: gnome, ratpoison, xfce4, openbox
– Added (too many to list) packages from Debian/sarge (abiword, gnumeric…)
– Replaced mozilla-suite by mozilla-firefox and mozilla-thunderbird
– linux-ntfs (sourceforge) CVS snapshot

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More on the IBM SoulPad

LinuxDevices.com has a simple diagram describing how the IBM SoulPad works. To quickly summarize, it looks like Knoppix, autoloads VMware, which restores a session that was “hibernated” to a USB drive. The hibernation is the difficult part since it also has to store all documents and application changes to the system, along with whatever is in memory.

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Creating a Multi-boot DVD

PCQuest has an article detailing how to get all your favorite LiveCDs onto a single, menu-selectable LiveDVD. A great how-to article that hopefully will bring a round of LiveDVDs with dozens of distros!

First create a folder for each live distro you have. For instance, if you are creating a DVD for Auditor, PHLAK and Whoppix, create three folders with the name auditor, phlak and whoppix.

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Massive Linux handout set for French schools | CNET News.com

64,000 LiveCDs are being distributed to students in French schools. This is great in so many ways, not only will it cut down on software piracy (MS will be happy), it will enable many more students to use tools that they may not have been able to use previously. Not everyone can afford MS Office, Photoshop, etc, and not everyone can/is willing to pirate it. Once this generation comes to expect this kind of capability on any computer, manufacturers will include it on their systems, and people will end up getting a $300 Dell with a full office suite, image editing apps, and practically every program they could ever use.

Every student between the ages of 15 and 19 attending a school in Auvergne will be given a pack containing two CDs. The first CD contains free software for Microsoft Windows and Apple Computer’s Mac OS X, including the OpenOffice.org office productivity application, the Firefox browser and the GIMP image editing application. The second CD is a Linux Live CD, allowing pupils to try the open source operating system without installing it.

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IBM’s SoulPad portable virtual computing environment

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).

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Mepis Lite Beta Review

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.

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Gentoo Linux Installer

With the release of Gentoo 2005.1 comes new Gentoo LiveCDs used for installing Gentoo, plus an experimental LiveCD which includes and automated installer. Check it out here.