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18 Live Linux CDs -- In A Row

Posted by timothy on Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:25 PM
from the that-doesn't-mean-they're-fighting dept.
Software Linux
prostoalex writes "OSNews carries "a quick roundup" of 18 (they are not kidding, eighteen) live Linux distributions. Among those who made the list: Basilisk (based on Fedora), BeatrIX (based on Debian/Knoppix/Ubuntu), Berry Linux (based on Fedora), Damn Small Linux (based on Debian), FreeSBIE (based on Free BSD), Gnoppix (Knoppix/Debian plus Gnome, now merged with Ubuntu), Kanotix (modified Knoppix/Debian), Knoppix (the first big live CD, based on Debian), Luit (Debian/Xfce, rox filing system), Mandrake Move (based on Mandrake), Mepis (Debian), Morphix (modular Debian), PCLinuxOS Preview (a Mandrake fork), Sam (Mandrake/Xfce), SLAX (Slackware), Suse 9.1 and 9.2 (rpm-based), Ubuntu Live (Debian), Xfld (Debian/Damn Small Linux and Xfce). To call it a review would be a stretch, although a helpful paragraph on each operating system's claim to fame is provided."
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18 Live Linux CDs -- In A Row 50 Comments More /

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  • Lacking a Major Player? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SpottedKuh (855161) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:27PM (#11547723)
    Interestingly, they have two versions of Suse reviewed, yet no Gentoo?

  • Gentoo... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:27PM (#11547724)
    Lemme fire up catalyst real quick and give you a few more to play with...

    Seriously, for those who'd like to play with creating their very own custom Live CD, Gentoo's catalyst makes it really easy. It takes a bit of time, and could use some better docs, though.

  • So which one... (Score:5, Funny)

    by skids (119237) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:28PM (#11547725) Homepage

    Has the scariest startup screen to go along with the words "Hey, you'll loves this, I just wiped your system and installed Linux!"?

  • What we need (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:31PM (#11547738)
    Is a really, really big bittorrent of all 18. Somebody get cracking on that.

  • more than 18 (Score:5, Informative)

    by frovingslosh (582462) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:33PM (#11547752)
    Not a review (either), but this website http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php?sort= &showonly= [frozentech.com] list a lot more than 18 live CD's (and even it is not complete).

  • chart, please! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by js7a (579872) <james@@@bovik...org> on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:33PM (#11547754) Homepage Journal
    Who would take the trouble to try so many distros and not bother to summarize their findings in tabular format? Someone with the sorely lacking proce capability of Mr. LaRue, evidently.

  • Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Propagandhi (570791) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:34PM (#11547762) Journal
    Does anyone stop to think that there may be too many flavors of Linux for the average user? Consider this, if you will: Joe User, sick of cleaning the spyware and virii off his Windows box for the bazillionth time reads about "Linux" in the Times/on Cnet/wherever. Naturally, he googles it, and ends up with all 18 of these live distros, a ton of kernel related stuff that he doesn't understand, and a gazillion news articles reviewing things he knows nothing about.

    I have RTFA, btw, and it was pretty approachable, but it still didn't make it much easier for the user to pick out something to replace his E-Mail checking/Web Surfing/Occasional Media playing (pr0n) computer. Perhaps the Linux community should get together and make a serious effort at a unified "desktop" launch. Personally, I think it'd go a long way towards getting more people off XP and involved in Open Source, all these fractured distros aren't really helping.. /2 cents

    • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JanneM (7445) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:48PM (#11547819) Homepage
      Perhaps the Linux community should get together and make a serious effort at a unified "desktop" launch. Personally, I think it'd go a long way towards getting more people off XP and involved in Open Source, all these fractured distros aren't really helping.

      This seems to pop every once and again, in different varieties: "there's too many distros/desktop projects/widget sets/web browsers/Hello Kitty squid cookies to choose from. Why can't we have just one?"

      A few questions:

      * Who, exactly, would do the picking? Based on what criteria? And who would decide that person/organization actually was a good choice to pick an alternative?

      * What did you have in mind for enforcement? Selective assassinations of developers and users that refuse to go along?

      Users pick different distros/desktops and so on because they have different needs and different preferences. And developers develop a particular option for all kinds of reasons - becoming popular may not even be on the list at all.

      So, let's say "we" decide on Redhat with XFCe as the new standard for Linux. Will that mean that Debian will close their mailing lists, Novell immediately liquidates itself and all gnome and kde developers quietly rm their development directories and take up the torch of XFCe? Nope. If anything, an attempt to mandate one option out of many will antagonize a lot of people and make that option less popular then before.

      • Yes, but as the grandparent post states.

        It's too confusing for Joe 6-Pack to be able to decide on a linux distrobution to use. Lets Look at Joe's thoughts.

        "I've had to remove even more Viruses and spywares off my computer. I thought that Anti-Norton-Virus was supposed to protect me." (Note, as someone who helps Joe 6pack too often, yes, they call it the anti-norton-virus, instead of NAV)

        "What's this Linux thing I read about?" (Followed by a search from one of his pay-per-click toolbars. See's ads to i

        • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:4, Insightful)

          by JanneM (7445) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @01:26AM (#11548223) Homepage
          So, again, who is going to do the ellimination?

          Who is going to say to, for example, the Mepis developers that they are not welcome to develop their distro anymore? And what do you suggest when they say "f**k you" and redouble their efforts, and most everybody else sees you as a posterior opening for trying to dictate what other people do with their time?

          As for Joe:

          Joe will get whatever flavour his geeky friend Billy recommends him - the same friend that in practice will work as support and mentor until Joe is up to speed on his new system. It really doesn't matter which distro Billy hands over; all the modern ones are good, and the informal support network is a much more important factor than any details of the particular distro anyway. Or, he will buy a desktop with Linux preinstalled and will run whatever came with the machine.

          By the time Joe really discovers the wealth of alternatives out there, he does so because he's been delving deeply enough into the Linux world that he is perfectly capable of choosing himself.

          People who aren't interested in computers aren't stupid, or dense, or uneducated. They just aren't interested in computers.

        • So what are you saying? We should forcefully shut down any developers who make their own distro?

          I don't care what Joe does, I want my computer to do what I want it to do. I don't care what MS does, as long as they don't stop me from doing what I want to.
        • It's actually a little easier than all that. Joe six-pack picks up Red-Hat Linux at the CompUSA because he heard "it's the most popular" or "it's the best" or some other such thing. He loads it up (terrifically easy install) and starts to work.

          Is Red Hat Linux "the best"? Who knows, but it is one of the most talked about in the media and it is on the shelf at CompUSA so why not give it a whirl?

          OR...

          Same reasoning, but he ends up downloading Fedora for free from one of the mirrors after going to the Re

            • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:4, Insightful)

              by Mornelithe (83633) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @05:53AM (#11549209)
              MS and Apple didn't 'get it right' by making the interface shinier first and worrying about the core second. That doesn't alleviate the fact that installing an operating system is hard (which you cite as a problem).

              The only reason people can use Windows and MacOS, but they "can't" use Linux is that Linux doesn't come pre-installed on a desktop system from any of the major players. People never have to install OSX or Windows, and that's a major advantage.

              Ordinary people are perfectly capable of using a modern Linux desktop once it's installed. There are plenty of people here giving testimonials like, "my mom uses Linux, now that I set her up with it." The problem is that 99% of PCs are sold with Windows installed, and 100% of Macs have MacOS (assuming you want Linux to take over there, though I don't know why you would).

              If Linux had 95% of the PC marketshare and came preinstalled on all PCs, and Windows were struggling, and nothing else were changed from how it currently is,* I doubt you'd see people having terrible problems, and people would be talking about how 'Joe Sixpack' can't handle Windows because it's too hard to install it separately and it's 'non-standard' so it's hard for people to use. "It doesn't look like Linux, so no one will ever switch."

              KDE and Gnome aren't unusable by any reasonable standard. They're not even that different from Windows and OSX. At least, they're not any more different than the differences between cars or beers. We don't have radically different paradigms for web browsing and word processing on Linux. They just look a little different and shuffle the menus around, and that's not anything you can't get used to quickly.

              Linux doesn't deliver. What it delivers is an ugly conglomeration of strange actions and odd command lines.

              I don't know where you got this idea, but it's bullshit. If you're doing what everyday people are doing, you can do it in one, consistent environment (pick KDE or Gnome, I don't care which), and without a command line. Hell, I could do most of my 'power user' stuff without a command line if I wanted.

              * Well, maybe change the fact that most hardware manufacturers would rather shove bamboo under their fingernails than release specifications for their hardware so that open source people can support it, rather than spending their time reverse-engineering the interfaces. I bet people could swing that if Linux had 95% marketshare.**

              ** Anal-retentive hardware companies are probably the #1 reason Linux users want other people to use Linux (other than altruism or something). I know that if hardware companies wouldn't be such bastards about releasing specs (they don't even need to write drivers), I wouldn't even consider caring what other people use (not that I care a lot now).
              • At out Linux meetup last night we had a new guy show up. One of the members was showing off his new Linspire notebook. The new guy fiddles about with the notebook for a few minutes and exclaims that Linux is easy to use. He figured it wouldn't take him very long acclimize to the slight differences with Linux.

                Linspire uses KDE, but GNOME is essentially the same to a beginning Linux user.
        • Well, I checked on this - a Google search for Linux points to http://www.linux.org as the first hit. Searching on MSN for Linux returns http://www.linux.com and http://www.linux.org in that order.

          If you go to linux.org and click "Download", it brings you to a page that mentions a) that you don't have to install Linux to the hard drive and b) that Knoppix is the most popular Live CD.

          I'm not saying it's not a valid point - people are easily confused by "this Linux thing" if they haven't done any research bu

    • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dmaxwell (43234) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:49PM (#11547823)
      Just how do you propose to cut down on the proliferation? These pieces are all laying around for anyone to scratch his itch with. Try your "Google criteria" with Windows. You will get an equally confusing raft of crap that pops up. The only reason there isn't a decision on which Windows for most people is that Dell or Gateway decided for them.

      I suppose a would-be Windows refugee could ask the geek that lives across the street or see if there is a LUG in town. The only way Linux can be what you want is if order is imposed on it. If order is imposed, Linux would cease to have what attracts so much development. Fast and competing development is how this has to work or it won't work at all.

      I even maintain my own Knoppix builds (not for DL unfortunately...they have Captive drivers and MS fonts installed). The reason I can make a Knoppix that the stock one doesn't provide is because anyone can roll their own. Nothing has been done to make this difficult for the sake of having a unified market. A chaotic ever evolving Linux may never be able to unseat the likes of MS. A staid controlled Linux never will because very few will want to develop for it.

    • Re:Inevitable comment, but valid point.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kfg (145172) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:55PM (#11547868)
      Does anyone stop to think that there may be too many flavors of Linux for the average user?

      Yes, and decided the point has validity.

      "Perhaps the Linux community should get together and make a serious effort at a unified "desktop" launch."

      No, they shouldn't.

      KFG

    • Oh, I dunno (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jd (1658)
      When you consider that different people want different things out of their computer, it makes perfect sense to have many flavours. That's the same reason there are so many car manufacturers, and indeed why many of those produce multiple models at the same time.

      A given car manufacturer may easily produce a subcompact, a compact or mini, a regular car, a hatchback, a saloon and/or an SUV, with anywhere from zero to infinite customizations and extras, in budget, standard and luxury price ranges.

      True, it wo

    • " I think it'd go a long way towards getting more people off XP and involved in Open Source"

      I agree on some of the things you are saying, but do you honestly think that the general public really gives two shits about open source?

      Will they save money?

      Its it easier to use?

      Can they do everything they need to do for fun and for work?

      These are the things people care about, not open source.
    • On the other hand, there's way too many brands of coffee. I go to a supermarket and I stand in front of a shelf with coffee for 7 hours, unable to decide. In the morning I go to a resturant to have my morning coffee, they hand me a menu, and I see 15 different brands. Before I choose one, they excuse me, they are closing and it's evening. I even planned switching to tea because of that problem, but once I entered a chineese tea shop and nearly died from dehydration.

      My friend says "Why don't you just pick o

      • A strawman! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        "A new user moving from Windows shouldn't have to know (or care) if they use KDE/Gnome/Fluxbox/etc or 2.4.x/2.6.x. They should just be able to use a machine and be done with it."

        Don't you see, new users don't need to care! Pick any good, general distro and install it for them. Don't talk about KDE vs. GNOME. Don't talk about 2.4 vs. 2.6. They will use the one that is installed and be happy!

        You (and many Linux advocates) create an issue that does not matter to the new user, and then claim that it hampe

  • Error (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CypherXero (798440) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:34PM (#11547764) Homepage
    Why is FreeBSD listed? It's not Linux.

  • FreeSBIE is not Linux (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SirCyn (694031) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:37PM (#11547783) Journal
    FreeSBIE is based on FreeBSD and should not have been included in a Live Linux CD Roundup without special mention.

    I suspect that the author is not familiar with FreeBSD, and assumed it would be the same as Linux. In many ways FreeBSD is similar to Linux, but the fact that he could not get Printing or Wireless running tells me he really didn't know what he was doing. Both of these tasks would take me 15 minutes.

    On a last note, this is only the second release of FreeSBIE, and it's based on the somewhat criticized 5.x line. Problems of one kind or another should be expected. Give them a few more releases and I'm sure they'll have the bugs worked out.

  • Please find me a liveCD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mrpuffypants (444598) * <slashdot@@@tomservo...net> on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:48PM (#11547821)
    Here's what I want:

    - A linux liveCD without any X server installed whatsoever
    - DSL doesn't count, since it has to hack a bunch of things up to work within 50MB
    - If possible, i'd like it to be debian-based

    Any ideas?

    I've tried re-mastering Knoppix over and over but it seems like the minute I uninstall KDE/X the whole system craps out.

  • In a row? (Score:5, Funny)

    by IntelliTubbie (29947) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:51PM (#11547844)
    Try not to run any Linux distributions on the way to the parking lot! Hey, you ... get back here!

    I'm not even supposed to be here today.

    Cheers,
    IT
    • My Linux distro is like a truck. Berzerker!
      Would you like some making fsck? Berzerker!
      My Linux distro is ticking clock. Berzerker!
      Would you like to fsck my /dev/cock? Berzerker!

    • Re:In a row? (Score:5, Funny)

      by madmancarman (100642) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @01:15AM (#11548193)
      Imagine instead of Dante and Veronica, a conversation between Klaus Knopper and Pamela Jones of Groklaw:

      PAMELA: That was Gentoo.
      KLAUS: Why do you call him that?
      PAMELA: Linus made it up. It's a live linux CD thing.
      KLAUS: What do you mean?
      PAMELA: After he boots a live CD, he likes to download and compile new binaries from source. It's called gentooing.
      KLAUS: He requested this?
      PAMELA: He gets off on it.
      KLAUS: Linus can be talked into anything.
      PAMELA: Why do you say that?
      KLAUS: Like you said - he gentooed him.
      PAMELA: Linus? No; I gentooed him.
      KLAUS: Yeah, right.
      PAMELA: I'm serious...
      KLAUS: You booted that guy's live CD?
      PAMELA: Yeah. How do you think I know he liked...
      KLAUS: But...but you said you only installed three distros! You never mentioned his!
      PAMELA: That's because I never installed his!
      KLAUS: You booted his live CD!
      PAMELA: We went out a few times. We didn't install, but we fooled around.
      KLAUS: Oh my God! Why did you tell me you only installed three distros?
      PAMELA: Because I did only install three distros! That doesn't mean I didn't just live-boot with people.
      KLAUS: Oh my God-I feel so nauseous...
      PAMELA: I'm sorry, Klaus. I thought you understood.
      KLAUS: I did understand! I understand that you installed three different distros, and that's all you said.
      PAMELA: Please calm down.
      KLAUS: How many?
      PAMELA: Klaus...
      KLAUS: How many live CDs have you booted?!
      PAMELA: Let it go...
      KLAUS: HOW MANY?
      PAMELA: All right! Shut up a second and I'll tell you! Jesus! I didn't freak like this when you told me how many distros you installed.
      KLAUS: This is different. This is important. How many?!
      PAMELA: Something like seventeen.
      KLAUS: WHAT? SOMETHING LIKE SEVENTEEN?
      PAMELA: Lower your voice!
      KLAUS: What the hell is that anyway, "something like seventeen?" Does that include mine?
      PAMELA: Um. Eighteen.
      KLAUS: I'M EIGHTEEN?
      PAMELA: I'm going to class.
      KLAUS: Eighteen?! My girlfriend booted eighteen live CDs!
      RMS: In a row?

  • Where is d y n e : b o l i c ? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Artemis3 (85734) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:54PM (#11547861)
    dynebolic [dynebolic.org] is not debian based, its not knoppix based, its an original project! Meant for multimedia 64mb ram machines, and the xbox.

    While knoppix each day has less and less apps, this one is getting more and more. And the machines which typically hang with knoppix (or knoppix based), even using all the "no" options, dynebolic loads happily. Not to mention 64mb ram machines, thankfully window maker based desktop for us in poor countries where these kind of machines abund.

  • So how many of these can... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by smartsaga (804661) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:54PM (#11547862)
    replace a windows server that does file sharing, web server, ACLs, backup, that also can partition a hard drive, can authenticate using active directory, network configuration, email server with a minimal graphical desktop, that fits on a miniCD that if it is ever hacked all you do is restart the computer and the server is back to it's "clean" read only state.

    If you have a "live" CD then updates take as little as burning the updated CD and rebooting the server with it. Configuration files can reside on a floppy to avoid unwanted changes, facilitate backups, etc. Processes can run on sandboxes to avoid total system compromise in case of a hack attack.

    I mean, how many out there? Domainix sounds good but still needs a lot of typing. Not easy enough to brag about infront of windows only people. Slax has an add-on for samba and it is small enough... But how many out there??

    If there would be one that does all that.. I would even pay for it!!!

    Have a good one.

  • repeat after me.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by naelurec (552384) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:54PM (#11547865) Homepage
    FreeBSD is NOT Linux!!

    Seems like ever since Distrowatch started tracking FreeBSD, everyone seems to think that FreeBSD is just another Linux distro.

    The Linux community should tar and feather those who mix up ye unholy non-GPL software with the almight GNU/Linux distros!! Down with Distrowatch! Down with OSNews and James LaRue!! hehe..

  • Gentoo Live CD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by colonslashslash (762464) on Tuesday February 01 2005, @11:59PM (#11547884) Homepage
    NavyNOS is actually a pretty good Live CD based on Gentoo. I've not used it a great deal, but enough to tell you that the default WM is fluxbox with a sleek theme and background, and it comes with an installer script to make a Gentoo HD install alot quicker for those who are concerned about it.

    GUI frontends for partition editing, portage (Porthole IIRC) and the Gentoo file browser are there by default on top of the usual suspects and a few extra net/security apps.

    We have a torrent up for it here if anyone is interested:
    The Linux Mirror Project - NavyNos 2005.01 torrent [tlm-project.org]

    Homepage here:
    http://navynos.linux.pl/ [linux.pl]

    This is the only Gentoo based Live CD that I'm aware of, if anyone knows of another, please enlighten me.

  • Linux? (Score:3, Informative)

    by NEOtaku17 (679902) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @12:02AM (#11547893) Homepage
    If anyone is looking for a Unix alternative to Linux I definitely recommend trying FreeSBIE. You can learn the way of the BSD without messing with your current install.

    Surf on over here [freesbie.org] for the torrent file.

  • coLinux sorely overlooked (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jago25_98 (566531) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @03:22AM (#11548653) Journal
    coLinux runs inside a Window in Windows. When people are trying Knoppix they could be running coLinux.

    http://www.colinux.org/

    I use it to serve my ext3 & reiserfs partitions.

    Cavats I know of at the moment:

    - TAP virtual interface very slow
    - not quite a double-click install but close
    - virtual filesystem doesn't shrink and grow automatically

  • Knoppix (Score:3, Informative)

    by Siener (139990) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @03:52AM (#11548756) Homepage
    The original, and in my opinion still the best. They seem to get better with every release.

    Old versions of Knoppix didn't work properly on my laptop. Recently I tried it on my laptop again, and I was amazed. I basically tested how quickly I could get everything working.

    About 15 minutes later I had succesfully set up my local network, internet via ADSL, printer, Samba, and Cd-Writer. As an encore I connected to the internet through GPRS via my cellphone, via the ir port - something that I have never been able to do in Windows.

    Best of all: I saved the configuration to a USB key, so now everything is set up correctly as soon as I boot.

  • plan9 boots from CD (Score:3, Informative)

    by DrSkwid (118965) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @04:54AM (#11549014) Homepage Journal
    If you feel like trying it out, it boots from CD anyway, no need for a special LiveCD

    http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/ [bell-labs.com]

      • You almost have a point, and indeed the wording was previously different but with enough pressure from users and developers enough changes have occured that the now OSI Certified Lucent Public License Version 1.02 [bell-labs.com] clearly states :

        ----

        7. EXPORT CONTROL

        Recipient agrees that Recipient alone is responsible for compliance with the United States export administration regulations (and the export control laws and regulation of any other countries).

        ----

        On 9th Jan the GNU foundation and in particular RMS. change [gnu.org]

    • Re:18? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There are 200 odd liveCDs on this link
      http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

    • Re:Linux on grandma's desktop? (Score:4, Informative)

      by adler187 (448837) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @01:02AM (#11548140) Journal
      There is no way to find the right Linux distro for you unless you try some out and that is the beauty of these Live cd's. When looking for a new car do you get overwhelmed because there are about 5 bajillion different make/model/options when looking for a car? A computer is the same, you must do some research and do some test driving first. First of all writeups like these should be of some help to you though you might also want to find a friend or someone you know that uses Linux and get their opinion. Obviously since you are a "power user" you should be able to handle it just fine.

      For some recomendations I would check out SLAX [linux-live.org] and Ubunutu [ubunutlinux.org] (Live cd download is here [ubuntu.com]

      I personally use SUSE, but their Live-CD sucks. If you decide to go with a KDE based distro that is what I would choose. If you like GNOME more I would go with Ubuntu. Also, although a lot of people seem to like Knoppix, I have never really liked it too much (mostly because of the messy menu structure). So there you go, try them out. What have you got to lose (besides some time downloading, bandwidth, and a couple blank cd's)?

    • Re:Linux on grandma's desktop? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cwg_at_opc (762602) on Wednesday February 02 2005, @01:04AM (#11548149) Journal
      what we need is a quickie questionaire that helps you decide which distro suits your needs, then burns the ISO for you, sort of like the weird quizes on bbspot.com only serious.

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