GNOPPIX: Bootable GNOME CD

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Posted by michael on Friday September 12, 2003 @07:55AM from the sincerest-form-of-flattery dept.

ubiquitin writes "While KNOPPIX has been around for some time, the GNOPPIX project has only recently made its first release. The main difference is that it lets you boot into the GNOME desktop environment. Usually forks are more trouble than they're worth, but given the limits of what you can compress onto a single CD, separate projects makes sense to me. Hopefully more widespread recognition will also bring about a few more mirrors."

11 of 380 comments (clear)

well what I prefer.. by peculiarmethod · 2003-09-12 07:57 · Score: 5, Funny

I prefer spooning with my software..

forking, you gotta stay the night, and feel awkward that morning at breakfast..

pm

--
** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
1. Re:well what I prefer.. by DChristensen · 2003-09-12 08:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Not to mention you could wake up with an AOL CD staring at you from across the bed.
  
  --
  --
  Mac OS X--Unix without the assholes^Whassles.
Re:Troubleshooting Potential by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-12 08:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

This could be just the thing for checking a system for broken hardware and/or connectivity. A tech could walk up, insert their GNOPPIX CD, boot into a GUI environment, check things out and then go. The cost for this versus propietary alternatives would be VERY attractive.

Gee... sort of like Knoppix which has been out for over a year.
Nothing new here... by advocate_one · 2003-09-12 08:01 · Score: 5, Informative

Morphix has had a Gnome version available for some time now as well as KDE and XFCE4 versions.

morphix.sourceforge.net

>Currently, iso's with XFCE4, Gnome2.2, KDE3.1 and a game iso are available for download! Morphix is an Open >Source/Free software project, based on Debian GNU/Linux and Knoppix. For more information, check the FAQ
Now had it been Gnome 2.4... that would have been news. :)

--
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Re:Why is this useful? by AchmedHabib · 2003-09-12 08:03 · Score: 5, Insightful

OS on a CD can be very useful when you try to rescue a system. Having a fully working system with all the tools at hand and access to the broken one, can save hours of work.
You boot the CD and get everything including network access, I have sometimes attached a USB (v2!) harddisk and transferred data to that one, or maybe a partition(with partimage).
Usefulness of Bootable Linux Distros by sremack · 2003-09-12 08:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Bootable Linux distros should not be looked at as standalone OSes. Instead, they should be used for some specific purpose. One could test hardware configurations, recover some aspect of an old Linux partition, or even do a complete forensic investigation. I really like how you can create your own bootable Linux distro using Eagle Linux . One example is the bootable Linux project, FIRE (on sourceforge).
Now we need to make a bootable live DVD-RW distro. by LinuxMan · 2003-09-12 08:12 · Score: 5, Interesting

It would be really cool to take KNOPPIX to the next level: DVD-RW knoppix, where you can actually save your changes on the disk. (albeit slowness) Theoretically, you could write a certain amount of information to it, until you have filled up the disc, then have a mechanism to write a new clean DVD-RW with just the most modern information. That with a very driver heavy Linux kernel should allow for your "desktop" being exactly the same on any machine you insert the disc into!

Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition
Re:Live CDs by FreeLinux · 2003-09-12 08:15 · Score: 5, Informative

Knoppix
Knoppix Mini Cd
OpenGroupware Live CD
Moppix
Gnoppix
Quantian Scientific Computing Environment
Freeduc
L.A.S.
BlueEyedOS
Oralux
DamnSmallLinux

and others I can't presently remember.
Re:How do you pronounce this? by VertigoAce · 2003-09-12 08:20 · Score: 5, Informative

Except with Knoppix, the 'K' isn't silent. Knoppix is from Knopper, which is a German name. Unlike English, the k in kn is pronounced.
Hope this becomes a new trend; especially with DVD by bsharma · 2003-09-12 08:29 · Score: 5, Interesting

Hope this becomes a new trend; especially with DVDs. Then we can get rid of OS from hard drive entirely and just use a universally recognized file system on the HDD. You can boot whatever OS you want with the DVD and get the work done. Imagine four different people in your home using the same machine with four different OSs. The ultimate Virtual Machine!
Re:Why is this useful? by kubla2000 · 2003-09-12 08:56 · Score: 5, Insightful

I was about to moderate a comment in this thread but this pissed me off:

Having said that, I found this statement humorous: "but given the limits of what you can compress onto a single CD, separate projects makes sense to me.". Given the limits??? A CD has, what, 740MB? Yeah, they really had to push to fit into the tiny confines of a CD. I find it intriguing how the same community that endlessly used the term "bloat" to describe Microsoft software now can keep a straight face when describing the space on a CD as "limited".

Fella, if you think you can fit Windows, IIS, Office (twice over, Knoppix comes with OpenOffice as well as Koffice and several components from the Gnome office suite), MSSQL, several web browsers, email clients, development tools, network and security analysis tools, photoshop plus several graphics viewers, several multimedia suites, an advanced audio editor / mixer, games, etc. etc. etc onto one CD, you're smoking a more refined blend of crack cocaine than Darl.

Knoppix/Gnoppix showcase what you can get with Linux. I think it's astonishing what Klaus and the other developers have managed to fit on to this disk. The only "bloat" in Linux is in the choice department.