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They're still around.

> great idea , now how about renameing linux next , seriously...

Idea! Let's call it GNU/Linux.

> how conceded do you have to be to name a os after your self??

Dunno but it seems to work well

What happens when you want to examine that xxx.jpg.vbs file on your friend's ipod, but accidentally run it instead of opening it..?

How did you accidentally run it? The iPod should be mounted as noexec, so first you had to copy the file from that filesystem to your home directory. Then you had to chmod u+x your copy of the file. Then you had to execute it. Even the dumbest user can't accidentally do all three of those things.

You're screwed and have to reinstall

And to get to that level of screwedness, you had to to accidentally type su or sudo and a password, before you execute the malware. A fourth step, making the overall process even less likely to accidentally occur.

Of course, everything I'm saying, is based on a certain premise that we both know doesn't really apply in this case. So why are we pussy-footing around the real issue, by talking about user mistakes and virus scanners? We damn well know that the system was already compromised and design to aid potential malware, from the very beginning, before that specific xxx.jpg.vbs threat presented itself. And we know how to repair it.

The problem has been understood for many, many years. It has been solved. Those who willfully eschew the solution, shouldn't pretend that they're discussing solutions in good faith. The pretense is so transparent that it's comical.

One good way to engender Linux support among the diehard Windows fans is, when their computer inevitably crashes and Windows won't boot, come to the rescue with a Linux LiveCD (Knoppix comes to mind, there are many others), mount their Windows drives read-only, and save all their data to backup via the network. Or, rip their case open, put the hard drive in your Linux computer, and proceed as above. Make sure they're around when you do this. I've had opportunity to do this on several occasions over the years, and each time I get immense admiration from the victim of Redmond's software. Even with computer-savvy individuals who were familiar with Linux, it still can get an appreciative ``Damn, I didn't know Linux could do that!'' Linux can do that. They're unlikely to go out and install Linux right then, but when you let them know that Linux can save them from such problems, they are usually much more well-disposed towards it later; plus, they're likely to tell their friends to talk to you with computer problems, allowing you to put in the good word with others. And if they ever give you too much crap about using Linux again, ask them if they want you to recover their data next time their computer dies.

So "lose" the drive, and tell them you use Knoppix, and a USB key to store your data. Supposedly, there never was any evidence, as the filesystem is read-only.

Now in MS windows you can set up accounts for different users and they can customize to some degree their interface. Not so versatile but again the idea is there of allowing users to have the interface they want without concern for interface selection of another user that would be using the same machine.

This is how it should be on GNU/Linux, and is to some extent.

Have you actually used Linux? Every single login manager I'm aware of lets the user choose between desktop managers when the log in. You can have KDE, Gnome, Blackbox, XFCE, and whatever else you want installed at the same time and choose between then when you log in. After you're logged in, you can further customize your desktop's appearance, and it won't affect other users at all. I'm not sure what you mean by "to some extent." The current state of affairs is much, much more customizable than Windows is.

Innovate the ability of the user to easily change interfaces and even be able to load their prefered interface off a USB thumb drive.

This, unfortunately, isn't "not easy" so much as it is simply not feasible. When you go between different Linux systems, you have to deal with different libraries, different system layouts, and even binary incompatibilities -- there is no guarantee that a binary compiled on one system will work on another of a different distribution (in fact, it probably won't). You can already carry around your configuration files on a USB key if you like, but it is simply far easier to just install your desktop manager of choice on whatever system you want to work on.

If you really must have your own customized Linux distribution and desktop evironment everywhere you go, though, you could just use Knoppix.

Ultimately its up to Linus to support the possibility at the kernel level....

Wait.. what? Why? Do you even understand what the kernel does? I'll give you a hint: it has nothing to do with desktop manager functionality. Any features like you've suggested would have nothing to do with the kernel.

Either you are horribly misinformed about Linux, or you have completely failed to get your point across.

If they cannot create anything, then the next thing that comes their way is:

"A fool and his money are soon parted"

When all the money is gone, that's it.

Creativity and imagination are the real wealth, upon which all new and desirable goods and services depend.
Well, almost, anyway.
 

Like most, I carry Knoppix, and I've had good luck with the System Rescue CD.

There's another few discs I like to keep with me, not so much against system failure but against "OS rot": a copy of Norton Ghost, and a ghost image of my XP partition, made just after install of the system and my favorite apps. A split copy of the image will fit on 2 4.5GB DVDs. Sometimes I don't bother and just put the image on a 2.5" USB-HD enclosure I carry.

If you adopt a good filesystem architecture, keeping your personal files on a separate partition, you can blast the ghost back into the boot partition whenever Windows starts puking on device drivers or doing whatever crufty XP behavior drives you nuts.

Ghost isn't free, and this takes DVDs to work, but it allows me to bounce my XP every month or so, making it work pretty smoothly. Also, I'm guessing M$ doesn't really condone this sort of Windows usage - software activation makes the technique a little hinky.

Anyone know of a cheap-as-free alternative to Ghost for this solution? The key functionality would be image splitting to disc sizes, bootability of the app itself, and boot drivers for CD/DVD drives and HD enclosures.

I currently carry around with me:
Kororaa XGL live CD v0.3 and 0.2
There is nothing better than to show off the power of Linux to your friends and the non believers. 0.3 is only ATI cards at the moment, while 0.2 supports both. People are usually impressed by this.

Backtrack 1.0
The best in security analysis live cd's.

Damn Small Linux
Good for older machines :)

Offline NT Password and Registry Editor
Always good to have when people forget their admin password or something on a windows machine...

Auditor Security collection from the backtrack people. I still have this around because it supports a bit more hardware than backtrack did

Knoppix
Good when you are at public terminals and are kinda paranoid...

I also carry around various install cd's for recent versions of linux.

Ultimate Boot CD
Knoppix
Damn Small Linux

For me my number 1 disc is Knoppix or Wikipedia Article

After that's its a disc with common hardware drivers, Java 1.5, Eclipse, Apache, MySql and PHP

Do what the majority of windows sys-admins do...use http://www.knoppix.org//. A much better way to fix windows than anything MS offers. Read write of ntfs is quite stable and there are all sorts of tools to do just about anything. Better still just install Ubuntu and give the puter back without saying a word...in fact you can run word docs just fine, do mp3s, convert and ripp cds and dvds if you know how. On top of this you can surf all the pron you want without worry of getting pOWNED.

Such functionality is already available in Knoppix. Not only can you store your configuration and updates on a USB thumb drive or HD, but the OS itself is portable, too.

Windows Vista restrictions work great until the child boots from a Knoppix Live DVD.

Seth

Why don't you try KnoppMyth? It includes quite a detailed installation manual, and does the MythTV installation using Knoppix, so all the hardware drivers, remotes, etc. are basically automatic. It takes about 15 minutes. There's a free "subscription" to Zap2It Labs for daily TV listings going two weeks into the future. To renew, every 3 months you answer two survey questions about TV viewing.

My first install was with a Athlon 1.3GHz, 512Gb ram, a Hauppauge PVR-350 and an 80GB drive. It worked the first time.

I've been using it for about a year, and have since upgraded to dual 320GBs, a 40GB boot drive, and a second PVR-350. Aside from local grid power failures, it's been running nearly continuously. It's awesome. You can program/view shows over the web or your LAN; you can burn DVDs, lots more. Check it out.

You don't need an emulator. Just grab a bootdisk such as Slax or Knoppix. Boot from this. Although you probably won't find Kalzium on the CD, you will still be able to install it from the net. Slax accepts Slackware packages and Knoppix accepts Debian packages.

You might even find you quite like Linux, and decide to install it permanently .....

As far as #1 goes, my tool of choice is a knoppix bootdisc. I use it for many things, including recovering data from any sort of partition. Wonders of dd and netcat is a great article including info on cloning drives over a network. I do use freedos in the event I need to do a BIOS update on a machine, and no other method is available.

Yes, it seems Ubuntu's competition, if merely only a perception, has given Debian a shoot in the arm. It wasn't but a week ago that I wondering what character from Toy Story was next to be used in Debian's developement cycle.

Perhaps Debian's position is, has been, and will always be that of a producer of 'raw' material which can be used by others to their own refinement.

Well I was allowing some training time, they could probably be checking their emails in 10 minutes: http://www.knoppix.org/

A lot of small businesses rely on computers for email and nothing else. A web browser and word processor may be nice to haves, but without email their business is loosing money.

98 needed patching to support USB, they are not likely to need to search for WiFi card drivers, to install the latest WMV9 codecs, or miss the large image handling of Photoshop.

I would think that a fairly small percentage of current 98 users who fit in to the 'power user' category who have discovered Power Point.

Oh, yeah. Stuff like Damn Small Linux, Beatrix and (formally) Knoppix? They don't help anyone.

Yeah, I use something similar to that too. Except it's not based on the OS that's already infected. No chance of spread or replication when you're accessing C:\ via /mnt.

If you'd like to get a feel for Linux before installing, try out Mepis (which I'm pretty sure is a LiveCD) or Knoppix (which is not very polished, but does give you a KDE desktop to play with - but Ubuntu is leagues better eye-candy/usability wise).

There is Kubuntu, but it doesn't have Gnome at all, which will eventually cause you problems. You can install Kubuntu then Gnome (which is what I did), but I'd suggest Ubuntu + KDE (as I had to fiddle to get all the necessary parts of Gnome installed under Kubuntu). Then run Automatrix and you've got a fully functional system ready to go.

I started out with SuSE 9.3 (a buddy of mine at work installed it for me). Then within a few weeks 10.0 was out and we did a fresh install. SuSE took a bit of hand holding to get "up and running" (decess for DVDs, mp3 decoding, etc - PackMan is your friend). After playing around in SuSE for a few months (including getting VMware running, then attempting unsuccessfully to install Xandros and Linspire, but successfully getting Win2k running), I got my wife a new laptop (same model as mine with SuSE) and decided to try Kubuntu out.

Frankly for new Linux converts, (k)Ubuntu rocks. The weird issues I have on my SuSE laptop's Synaptic touchpad do not occur under (k)Ubuntu, and it correctly recognized the widescreen monitor (SuSE didn't). Updating is a breeze - just last night I updated her system... 10% of her packages needed to be updated (1500-ish IIRC) and it took a grand total of 25-30 minutes including a kernel update!

I was about to go from SuSE 10.0 to (k)Ubuntu when 10.1 was released a few weeks ago. So I though what the hell and did an update. 10.1 is nice, but it's got some MAJOR issues - the autoupdate, well doesn't, my ATI Drivers no-go-no-mo, Azureus and eventually kTorrent stopped working despite repeated program reinstalls... Basically 10.1 is not for you (or me).

I'll be installing (k)Ubuntu on my laptop this weekend.

I've gotta say, after a bit of a teething process (a good 4-6 weeks of Google searches to get "simple" shit to work, like my ATI drivers, VMware, etc) I'm sooo very much more happy under (k)Ubuntu (even under SuSE 10.0, which is good, just more fiddly)! That 25-30 minute update I mentioned above was while I was surfing the web with 15-20 tabs open in Firefox with the system being responsive the entire time. You just don't get that under Windows!

Good luck on the migration! And if you need help, I'll toss as much your way as I can (being a 4 month old Linux n00b myself).

http://www.knoppix.org/

I boot it with Knoppix Live CD

Better yet, a live Knoppix DVD.

Unless, of course, you're a perfectionist that you believe Linux must be installed natively, but I beg you try it and examine its features before judging it. There's no harm in trying.

And you'd find it surprisingly featureful.

• Knoppix, live linux boot CD ("rescue"), http://www.knoppix.org/
• Unix Rosetta Stone, table to convert linux vs bsd vs unix, http://bhami.com/rosetta.html
• GNU screen, switch between shells in one login, priceless via ssh, http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
• GNU stow, simple package management for ANY posix system, http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/
• vim, not vi (I depend on ^P and a real undo history, note emacs is not so great for sysadmins who need quick changes on dozens of architectures), http://www.vim.org
• sudo, especially when giving a group permission as a non-root user as in my /. post groups + sudo can allow installation rights , http://www.sudo.ws/
• wiki, which tells people how to do things without bugging the sysadmin, (any wiki is good, I use mediawiki), http://www.mediawiki.org/
• CVS/Subversion, note changes in important configuration files (cvs is for older Unixes that can't run svn), http://subversion.tigris.org/
• rdesktop, remotely log into windows Remote Desktop/Terminal Services, http://www.rdesktop.org/
• fail2ban, drop traffic to attacking IPs (ie, failed logins) for small intervals, http://fail2ban.sourceforge.net/

Could you repeat the expiriment running Knoppix and report back to us.

More seriously though, Tom's Hardware should repeat the experiment with a Linux distro that is notebook friendly and has a SMP kernal.

Though I see the point you're trying to make, you are insinuating that BitTorrent networks are used solely for the illegal distribution of copyrighted content.

Not true.

Many sites, such as Knoppix, prefer to have their users receive their product via BitTorrent as it cheaper bandwidth-wise. And even Holywood is searching for a way to utilize this file distribution method.

Are you being satirical? Or are you truly ignorant of the most basic password function on a computer?

Are *you* being satirical? Or are you truly ignorant of what any kid with a Knoppix disc can do to your passworded computer?

1. If you need/want ongoing commercial support Open Country is your answer Cross distro supporting .deb and .rpm both. Totally web based admin of all of your linux systems and the users (note they can make apps follow users) Disclaimer: I helped in the founding of the company.

2. If you want Debian only in what is IMHO a very well designed setup, also web based Klaus Knopper of Knoppix fame has created m23 the iso, and it's documentation (quite extensive) are both on the knoppix 4.x DVD.

Try KNOPPIX http://www.knoppix.com/, http://www.knoppix.org/. The live-CD is great and it installs like a champ.

Ditto that.

And a trusted environment to run tests from.

Either a bootable cd distro (like http://www.knoppix.org/) or a bootable USB installation (like http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/179) .

If your students are not running Linux, and their backgrounds are in the Windows and mainframe worlds, then it might be best to approach OSS from the Windows side. This is especially true if your student's are not willing to install Linux on their own boxen or on whatever they may use at their place of employment.

So, be sure to include Windows based OSS programs such as found on the Open CD and check out the the source forge osswin site at http://osswin.sourceforge.net/.

You need to give them a flavor of what Linux is like to be sure, so include Knoppix in the mix somewhere.

It sounds like your course will be for programmers. If so, then introducing them to Cygwin would be a good idea. You may even wish to run KDE under cygwin on Windows (see http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/

For development tools you should cover the creating programs from the command line using make, etc., but also cover OSS IDE's -- Eclipse in particular would be a good one. And of course use g++ for C++ and Sun's java (I am not a purist so I think Java's Sun will suffice but Sun's Java is not regarded as true OSS, so you may need to find something else for Java.)

If you use g++ with cygwin on windows, then also consider introducing them to minGW so they can make their programs run natively on windows.

I run both windows and Linux at home, and prefer Linux. But at work I have to use a window box. I have cygwin with X installed and use both firefox and OpenOffice as replacements with no problems. I am posting to let you know about the windows possibilities because I beleive that you may encounter some resistance if you require your student's to run Linux. OSS on windows is a good way to introduce those who are new to OSS and Unix like file systems and tools to newbies.

I've had to deal with a highly infested windows system a few times. There are a lot of ways to deal with it; my favorite is reformat and hand them Mepis (or another easy distro) but some people can't handle that. I had one system in particular I couldn't completely clean up, I had logged in safe mode and cleaned, but there was still something (with no services or processes I could see running) going on. So I grabbed this Rootkit Revealer and it found my problems. It was a cinch to log in under dos and get rid of the problems (although in retrospect I could have used Knoppix or another LiveCD.

So there are good Windows rootkit revealers, you just have to look for them.

Knoppix is a linux distribution that comes on a bootable CDROM. It can be used to repair Windoze boxen, test hardware, and install a fully working linux server or workstation.

Buy the book "Knoppix Hacks" from O'Reilly. It is an book about Knoppix, but it serves as an excellent recipie book for linux in general.

For more info visit http://www.knoppix.org/

- Vista Secure Edition
http://www.openbsd.org/
- Vista Compact Edition
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
- Vista Instant Edition
http://www.knoppix.org/
- Vista Grandmother Edition
http://www.apple.com/
- Vista Open Edition
http://www.debian.org/

I take your point, but it seems to depend on context. The major Linux distros, for example, seem to be seeling pretty well from my local PC store at around 30-40 pounds (I'm in the UK), which is a pretty significant fraction of the asking price for Windows XP Home.

Said distros are sold that price for price of the support and documentation that come with them (support you don't have when you buy WXP Home), and sometimes for price of paid softwares bundled in the package, not for the distro itself.

I guess it's all about convenience. Whereas things like Firefox or OpenOffice.org can usually just be downloaded from the project's web site, it's harder to find a "pre-fab" version of SUSE Linux for example.

Ah yeah, really hard, I mean you have to click on links to Novell from suse.de, really really hard walli walli walli

and everyone clearly knows that one can't find any freely downloadable distro on teh intarweb

Built a Hylafax http://hylafax.org/ system on top of the latest v6.1, LFS http://linuxfromscratch.org./
Details:
3GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor, 1Gb RAM
11,878.40 BogoMIPS Total, 250Gb Hard Drive
    GCC 3.4.3
    Samba 3.0.14a
    HylaFAX 4.2.1

Gotta say it's way ahead of expectations.
I won't touch another distro now for my mission critical.
Although, Knoppix, http://www.knoppix.org/ and Ubuntoo, http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ are great "insert CD and run" distros, for workstations.
Working with SlackWare seems effortless also, http://www.slackware.org/.

Was fortunate enough to meet the fine gent who started the LFS project: Gerard Beekmans
Highly recommended support for the project, even if it's just $5 for a beer via donations :->, http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/contribute.h tml or a much needed "hints" writeup, http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/.

Download the Knoppix 4.0 DVD...you can painlessly try OpenOffice.org 2.0 and a host of other apps. I have a machine without a harddrive that is perfectly functional using the DVD and USB thumbdrives.

I don't know what you learned in jail, but it certainly had nothing to do with trademark law. Because one lesson is to look at the promotional content, like Knoppix website, where their use of the "Linux" mark is essential to their branding. Which use is infringement if they don't have a license. Which infringement can amount to dilution of Torvalds' mark, to the point where Knoppix could claim ownership of the mark themselves, taking it from Torvalds.

Going to jail proves nothing, anyway, except that you got caught at something. Which is no credit to you. Especially since your idea of anarchism is the hoary old cliche of "bombthrowing anarchist", burning the state and the species down. What a jerk - why should you care about open source, trademarks, or anything else that's just going up in flames when the "Transhuman" revolution finally gets us up against the wall. "Subhuman" is more like it. All your fantasies really just add up to a paradigmmatic Slashdot armchair revolutionary, which you went ahead and bashed, too. "Masturbator of Subhuman", keep your sticky hands to yourself.

Gentoo. It's called Knoppix

How about some CD's (or wallet CD's) that have open source software on it. You can get them started with the OpenCD, then Damn Small Linux, then maybe Knoppix. Try demo'ing them.

Use Knoppix. Is it even possible to make bootable floppies for NTFS systems?

If you are not experianced with Linux, and don't want to installit on your harddrive, just pop in a Knoppix CD/DVD and boot.

http://www.knoppix.org/

Use a mom-and-pop run internet cafe and boot Knoppix. Use the machine at the back.

http://www.knoppix.org/

>>to install fingerprint scanners on 130 computers
>>with Internet access or a time limit on usage.

[fanfare] This is a job for ... KNOPPIX! [/fanfare]

They could have a screenshot logger. That's why you need to boot your own media, not use M$ stuff.

• Dashboard
• Piper for a while was trying to implement an entire new Unix desktop based on GUI-based command-line scripting, but never quite got off the ground, and eventually abandoned the idea.
• Knoppix and other liveCDs are innovative -- an entire operating system on a CD-ROM! -- though you might quibble with "prior art" in the form of boot disks that you'd use to play your DOS games. They didn't have entire filesystems on them, though, so I'd maintain that this was innovation. A Windows liveCD exists in a primitive form somewhere, I think, but I don't know anything about it.
• gaim and other pluggable communication programs -- Firefox and xchat spring to mind -- are very useful, and you can probably find a plugin on one of those programs that does what you want. To my knowledge, the furthest the proprietary world got in this direction was skinning, but I could be wrong.
• Also in this vein is KDE, specifically the use of DCOP to help automate GUI tasks. DCOP isn't very well known and you have to discover it, but it can be very useful.
• GNU Screen, to my knowledge, is one-of-a-kind software, though you might cite inspiration in terms of VNC programs, which I don't know much about.
• I believe the concept of numerous virtual terminals on the same physical terminal (ie. Alt-F1, Alt-F2) is not only unique to OSS, but unique to Linux.
• 
  Ethan

You could ask someone else to compile a patched kernel for you, or you could install Linux inside VMWare or something similar and then patch and compile the kernel inside that. All of these products can be evaluated for free. If you have a CD drive that Linux can access you could maybe even just boot a LiveCD like KNOPPIX and compile a new kernel using it.

Knoppix: learn it, live it, love it.

First, install QEmu. (I prefer to install it through DarwinPorts)

Then download a x86 Linux Live CD ISO, for example Knoppix.

Then:
$ qemu -cdrom knoppix.iso -boot d

Simple as that. Networking will work out of the box.

You can also install Debian on a virtual harddrive using:
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=sarge.hdimage bs=1000000 count=2000
$ qemu -hda sarge.hdimage -cdrom debian-netinst.iso -boot d
When installed, start QEmu with:
$ qemu -hda sarge.hdimage

Even better, after installation, copy the kernel and the initrd to your Mac (using sftp) and start qemu with:

$ qemu -hda sarge.hdimage -kernel kernel-file -initrd initrd-file -append "root=/dev/hda1 console=ttyS0,38600" -nographics

Then you will get the console on a virtual serial port (which is your current terminal window) and it doesn't have to emulate any graphics at all.