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Klaus Knopper, Creator of Knoppix Talks to DistroWatch

Posted by Hemos on from the good-things-small-packages dept.

An anonymous reader wrote to us about an interview with Klaus Knopper the author/creator of Knoppix. Knoppix is "a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. "

4 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Distribution... by whiteranger99x · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If I may ask, what made you decide to base this distribution on Debian as opposed to something like Slackware, RedHat, or even a Build Your Own Linux Distribution?

    In other words, was there any redeeming factors Debian had over any other distribution?

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  2. Autodetection by CableModemSniper · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I love the way he says he designed the hardware autodetection. He just made a list of al the steps you do to setup a linux install's hardware and automated it and threw in some kudzu. Genius.

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  3. Hardware detection by exhilaration · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I know someone mentionned the excellent hardware detection found in Knoppix, but I'd like to know why other distributions don't have this level of simplicity? I mean, Knoppix is literally plug and play - pop it into the CD, walk away, and BAM there's KDE on the screen.

    WHY do I have to go through xf86config to get my distro up and running???? You gotta find your monitor's documentation, double-check what video card you have, look up how much memory, blah blah blah. Yet Knoppix does this AUTOMATICALLY???? (Or is that automagically?) Knoppix has been out for a while, their hardware detection should be implemented in every distribution!!

  4. Re:Knoppix for installfests... by Ed+Avis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If there were a DVD version of Knoppix with *every* free program you could possibly want to use installed - essentially Debian testing on a DVD - then maybe you could do without ordinary Linux distributions altogether. I'd certainly consider it, if I had a PC that was left on 24x7 and important things like mail and CVS on a central server.

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