Bootable Business Card Distro Needs Testing

dbarry writes "Many here have read recently about the FSF membership program. The much-coveted membership card is to be a version of the Bootable Business Card distribution. We are curently looking for testing of our pre-2.0 releases and automated builds. The 2.0 release of the LNX-BBC (and, thus, the FSF membership card) will use the powerful GAR build system to compile nearly all software on it from source code. As such it has changed greatly since the 1.618 release from 2001." Is it ok to covet the card but not the membership? :)

Comments

Not the same thing, but...

[mcgroarty]

It's not quite the same thing, but the debian install ISO and the FreeBSD lite install ISOs fit neatly on the business card and mini CDRs you can buy at most computer stores.

It's also trivial to create a spare partition (or remount a RAM disk as root), install a Debian system exactly as you like it, mount etc and var on a RAM filesystem and copy contents in with the init, and then burn the entire filesystem as an ISO, putting the kernel in place with the installer build tools.

I have a similar setup which is capable of mounting ntfs and fat32 filesystems. This has saved me a number of times in repairing screwed up 2000 and XP machines. The NT/2K/XP console mode is a joke. Using this disc, I can get in to repair the install without having to physically yank the drive and install it in another box!

Why not hurd?

[afabbro]

Just out of curiosity - why is the FSF card booting Linux instead of the Hurd?

Re:Why not hurd?

[reaper20]

Well duh, it's hard to make make cards out of vapor. :)

Compiling from source code?

[Anonymous Coward]

to compile nearly all software on it from source code. Is there really any other way to compile?

Re:It gets the ladies...

[notque]

"Here's my card, give me a call sometime."

"Will do, Debian."

picoBSD

[deep13]

Why not picoBSD? http://people.freebsd.org/~picobsd/ We had tremendous success while setting up firewalls in india with this. It's much easier to get a floppy through customs than an actual Cisco box (and you don't have to bribe anyone ;-) )
We just mailed them the floppy: pre-configured with ipfw and squid and some instructions on how to boot from it, where to plug what net cable and how to create the squid cache on the HD.

Tech TV

[Goldberg's Pants]

There was a story about the Bootable Business Card on Tech TV a few months ago. Some mom was shopping her kid around to the talent agencies. Nice gimmick and all, except this BBC fucked over one agents computer. Due to the unusual shape, it got stuck in the drive. They tried it on the show, and it got stuck in theirs too.

NOT exactly a good way to win friends, by giving them something that destroys their system...

I will make fun of people that have this by saying

[L. VeGas]

Hey, is that a mini Linux-distribution, small enough to fit on a CD-ROM that has been cut, pressed, or molded to the size and shape of a business card in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

These cards are great...

[stefanlasiewski]

Back when Linuxcare was still growing, they were producing these cards like mad. If you liked Linux, they would give you a dozen for free (To pass out at Lugs and geek-parties... "FOR THE REVOLUTION!" they said). I have given a bunch of them away to friends, and keep a copy at home and at work.

I really like small tools that have multiple uses, and this Linux CD fits well. I keep one in my mini-toolkit, right next to a Leatherman Multitool and Pocket Ref.

And yes, I have actually used it when I upgraded my RH6.2 to 7.2 (The GRUB install failed miserably), and to recover data from a friends partition.

Richard is gonna be upset

[Tracy Reed]

It should CLEARLY be the GNU/LNX-BBC!