Advantages over other live CDs? [LWN.net]

Advantages over other live CDs?

Posted Jan 29, 2009 13:48 UTC (Thu) by noeyedeer (guest, #56383)
In reply to: Advantages over other live CDs? by epa
Parent article: KNOPPIX 6.0 released

We continue to congratualte Dr Klaus on the new release, but what can he
be thinking? We thank him for 5.1.1 which is invaluable for rescue and
hardware checking. It is also a fine ambassador for Linux when people see
how easy it is to boot apparently dead hardware to a fully functional
desktop, and quickly effect a repair. The new 6.0 seems not to boot to a
mainstream KDE/Gnome/XFCE but can be persuaded to give a stripped-down
something, with almost none of the system tools available before, not
even disk partitioning. As yet there is not even a visual wow to show a
MS user. The ADRIANE is wonderful to include our visually impaired
friends, however most computing people can see. As yet 6.0 isn't worth
looking at.

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Advantages over other live CDs?

Posted Jan 29, 2009 16:23 UTC (Thu) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010) [Link]

Actually it does have things to recommend it even if the focus is no longer an all-singing all-dancing livecd. From the release announcement:

* High compatibility with its Debian base: Aside from configuration files, nothing gets changed in Debians standard installation.

That is huge if you like to add to or remaster your Knoppix. The Knoppix of old could hork up badly if you didn't use a light touch in adding to and removing.

* Amount of installed software has been greatly reduced in this first CD-version, so that custom remasters based on CD are possible again. In general, there are much fewer dependencies for the KNOPPIX-specific components, so that even small remasters, 256MB and less, can be created (hence the "Micro" part).

It also seems it is being redone as a tight simple basis that other livecds can be based on. I've more more Knoppix derivatives than Knoppix itself so this is good news.

* A persistent image for saving personal settings and additionally installed programs, KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img, is supported on the boot device. That way, even the boot system and startup scripts can be changed in the persistent image.

If I understand that correctly, I won't need to remaster if customizing for personal use. I can stick in a flash drive and add, remove, and twiddle to my hearts content and it all goes to the drive.