Knoppix 3.3

This linux distribution can be run from a bootable CD.

Knoppix is perhaps the most interesting distribution here; it's the only one you can run without any commitment, or even a hard drive. Knoppix, a project from Linuxtag, is a bootable CD that lets you run a full Linux operating system entirely from the CD alone. It's downloadable as a 700MB disc image, which you can write to a blank CD using Linux or Windows software.

As a CD-based distribution, there is no installation as such, you just insert the disc and wait. The boot phase has hardware detection that other vendors could take a lesson from - it detects and configures all sorts of devices, from your DVD-Rom drives, your graphics and network cards through to USB devices and digital cameras. The latest kernel and applications ensure support for the greatest number of devices.

In order to control the boot process, Knoppix uses a series of 'cheat codes'. The boot splash screen has a help option listing some of the main ones. Here you can control the screen resolution and tweak hardware detection settings, among other things. A full list of the cheat codes is available on the project's website.

Upon booting into the GUI, Knoppix 3.3 at your chosen resolution, and an icon for every partition on any hard drives on the PC. This is one area where Knoppix is extremely useful - system recovery. Not only can you read and write to Linux partitions, you can also do the same with Windows FAT volumes, as well as gain read-only access to the NTFS format Windows XP and 2000 use. Knoppix doesn't stop there - as you have an Internet connection, it automatically configures the network interface to make use of it, as well as any Lan the PC is attached to. This makes Knoppix ideal for transferring data to and from a PC that might otherwise be non-bootable. All the hard drive partitions are initially mounted as read-only for safety reasons, but a right-click on the partition?s icon makes it writeable.

You might expect that there is little software available other than system recovery programs from a 700MB CD. But the KDE menu has an overwhelming amount there. Knoppix uses a heavy compression system to provide more than 2GB of applications. Not only do you get a full working version of KDE 3.1.4 including Kmail, but you have Mozilla 1.5 (complete with Java plug-in), Open Office 1.1.0, and the latest versions of for CD-writing, the Xine video player, and heaps of games, educational programs and development utilities. There's even a utility to download and install a Flash plug-in, which can?t be distributed by Knoppix for legal reasons.

With so many applications, the menus aren't that well laidout. Most of the less frequently used programs have a plain, default icon, while the more popular ones have distinct images. The desktop is pretty much a default KDE set-up, though this isn't a problem.

As a system that exists in the PC's memory, you might assume there's little point in using it for anything other than recovery or to play with Linux. To get around the fact that the distribution isn't physically installed, a menu option offers an automated method of storing your home directory together with your settings on a hard drive partition, or even removable media like a Zip drive or Compact Flash (CF) card. Any will do, and Knoppix will even encrypt data for you. What's more, it is possible to install Knoppix to a hard drive and run it as any other distribution, though this it must be done manually, and requires expertise.

Knoppix provides a small configure printers, sound cards and swap devices, although the system automatically uses any swap partitions it detects on the hard drive. There's also the option to start services for remote administration, as well as a Samba server, to connect to a Windows network.

Knoppix is a free Debianbased distribution. The software is open source, and the CD is distributed under an open licence, as used for Red Hat and Mandrake's downloadable versions, which allows you to distribute the CD freely.

Contact: Knoppix
www.knoppix.com

System requirements:

• Intel 486
• 128MB of Ram

RRP: Free

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