Five Live CDs Reviewed [LWN.net]

Five Live CDs Reviewed

Posted Feb 5, 2004 6:23 UTC (Thu) by ctg (subscriber, #3459)
Parent article: Five Live CDs Reviewed

One of the interesting things about MandrakeMove is that it is intended to run from a Flash Drive (e.g. USB key ring).

It would be interesting to know how well this worked.

Do the others have this capability?

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Five Live CDs Reviewed

Posted Feb 9, 2004 12:23 UTC (Mon) by ekj (subscriber, #1524) [Link]

Close. MandrakeMove doesn't (by default anyway) run from a USB-keyring. It does however support using one for storing all your settings, aswell as $HOME, thus a person with a usb-keyring and a MandrakeMove cd can boot up any computer, and have all his stuff there, assuming "all his stuff" fits on the keyring.

Five Live CDs Reviewed

Posted Feb 12, 2004 21:45 UTC (Thu) by Frodo42 (guest, #19421) [Link]

Close. MandrakeMove doesn't (by default anyway) run from a USB-keyring.

It runs from a CD like the rest. The download edition doesn't store its configuration anywhere, meaning you'll have to enter your info every time you boot - and reconfiguring won't survive a reboot.

The payware edition runs very nicely with a USB key. It stores all the info you type in, holds your home dir, holds all configuration info and is generally a breeze to use. It has fewer apps than other Live-CD's, but more importantly for Joe A. User: it has by any measure the least number of obstacles for getting down to work. It's easier to set up and use than Windows, and the risk of downing your system by misconfiguration or by virus infection is just not there.

Now, some Linux users might be allergic to paying for software at all - or just too cheap to shell over ?20/$25 for just OS + Office Package + bunch of other apps, they can stay in their Ivory Tower and leave the commercial market to Microsoft.

For the rest of us, who appreciate getting a system that's sleek, functional and works out of the box, MandrakeMove is a great, little product. There are plenty non-commercial Live-CD's for geeks to use - it's a different ballgame - but as an alternative to Windows, MandrakeMove is cool :)