LWN: Comments on "Knoppix - the Great Linux Advocate"

Knoppix - the Great Linux Advocate

max_lehrer — 2003-05-16T17:31:24+00:00

I have only been using Linux for 10 minutes. And I am totally hooked forever. Thanks to Knoppix.
Let me explain how Knoppix is the best promotional Linux distribution ever.
(as if I were familiar with the other ones).
I am quite a ripe Windows user due to circumstance rather than choice, and have been flirting with the idea of trying Linux for two years or more.
I have been however following websites for a while, and when a nix-addict friend of mine who is a network admin just failed to get over to my place and help with an install, I said "enough".
After reading a great deal about choices, I decided on KNOPPIX simply because the risk of messing up any disk partition or network stuff (not just a home desktop) was zero.
Since I have 3 differrent HDD installed, with multiple logical partitions and no time or desire to back up many gigs of stuff, I threw in the CD and booted.
It felt as "knoppy" as my first boot of the menuet OS (www.menuetos.org)
After 10 minutes I am exhilarating and wanted to explain this now and not in 10 years when I will have to remember how it felt.
Even though this may not be the only version or the one I will still be using in 10 years it needs to be further supported because it frees users of any commitment fears or precaution reluctance that may be holding one back when not affording to mess with the computer in front of him.
Don't worry, be knoppy.
Forever knopped.

Knoppix - the Great Linux Advocate

dmallery — 2003-05-12T18:32:51+00:00

i have converted my working machines to hard-disk installs of knoppix. (cf knx-hdinstall)

by doing this, i availed myself of Klaus' debian expertise in package setup, leapfrogging my own mediocre skills. i found it necessary to convert /etc/apt/packages.list to a us-oriented set of mirrors and to remove the huge amount of internationalization in locales and kde-i18n-*.

the first time you do an apt-get update && apt-get upgrade, be prepared for a very long upload. once that is done, you have a really fine debian testing + unstable system.

dave mallery

Knoppix - the Great Linux Advocate

thoeme — 2003-05-10T19:26:23+00:00

One reason for KOPPIX' popularity here in german-speaking Europe was it's distribution
and modification with the computer magazine c't. At work, even my die-hard
windows-advocate coworker+boss did the installation at home. I was very surprised
when I received a call from hom for my tech support for installing KNOPPIX on harddisk
;-). I have played with it at work on the locked down company computers (winnt4) and it
worked really nicely...too bad I could not install it on the hard drive.

Knoppix - the Great Linux Advocate

debacle — 2003-05-09T09:16:16+00:00

Whenever a friend or colleague asks me about Linux, I invest one € and burn a Knoppix CD for her. "Can I open my MS-whatever document with OpenOffice?", "Can I browse my favourite web site with Mozilla?", "Can I do nice graphics with the gimp or sodipodi?" I do not answer anymore, I just hand out the CD.

The best thing is: Knoppix is based on Debian GNU/Linux and therefore very easy to customise. I needed a software development environment with tools such as anjuta, dia, and glade-2. I just copied Knoppix on a harddisk, installed the missing packages using apt-get, removed the games (sorry, I had to), and re-mastered the CD.

Only one glitch: Knoppix and Debian are not yet perfectly integrated, i.e. there are no knoppix-... packages in the official Debian archive and Knoppix sometimes uses "specialised" packages instead of the official ones. Please, Debian and Knoppix people, unite!