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Specialized Knoppixes for Fun and Profit
An anonymous reader writes "The University of Puerto Rico High Performance Computing facility (HPCf) and the Puerto Rico Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN-PR) are pleased to announce the release of bioknoppix. bioknoppix is a live CD linux, based on KNOPPIX, and specialized to include tools for bioinformatics. bioknoppix does not need to be installed on your computer, making it a perfect tool for workshops and demos. Some of the software included in the 0.3 release: EMBOSS 2.8.0, jemboss, artemis, clustal, Cn3D, ImageJ, BioPython, Rasmol, Bioperl, Bioconductor. For more information please see the bioknoppix home page." Reader
Tussinator wrote in about a new release of ClusterKnoppix.
This is just a wonderful way of packaging certain types of application. To those who say "I don't want to reboot every time I want to play XYZ", consider this: virtual environments that can boot off a CD in a window inside your current Windows or Linux setup.
Perhaps not the future of software distribution, but a significant part of it, nonetheless.
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Soooooooo many knoppix's....It's so easy to roll your own. How many "knoppix can be modififed for any purpose!" stories are we going to see on /. ?
I remember when in the days of Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS using specialized boot disks when running certain games to load only the system files that were needed for the game, no more and no less.
It seems like this is the concept that is coming back into style here. Optimize a boot-off-CD operating system to be sure that all the applications you need are installed properly, and as soon as you're booted you have everything all set up. It's great for assuring that you know everything that's running on the PC you're working with, and that there's no extra stuff lurking in the background... even if you've never met the PC before.
Live Knoppix CDs are about delivering applications with a 100% predictable and tested OS platform, not about specialization of Linux.
It is Knoppix plus layers, which remains Debian plus layers, which remains Linux plus layers.
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Linux is Linux. It doesn't really change from use to use. What we're seeing is specialization of the packages that include Linux...
Think about this. You make a custom liveCD, debug it, then deploy it on your Linux boxen. The boxes don't need HDDs, you could store user data on a network server. Even if a luser tries as hard as they can to mess it up, it's all fixed with a reboot. You could make different liveCDs for different departments with the proper apps installed (e.g. OpenOffice, payroll, accounting, sales, CRM, etc)
Anyone ever consider this?
Knoppix needs one too... (considering the uber-amount of gimp-stories).
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Well Actually, Linux for travellers might be handy...
A knoppix CD with email software (including MTA), AbiWord, gnumeric Mozilla FireFox and a GIS package, a complement of maps, and GPS and printer support (with autodetection for USB printers).
Just pop it in the drive at your local Web Cafe & plug in your GPS if you have one. Then go about printing custom maps with just those features you want marked, and at the scale you want.
It'd probably be distributed as a different CD for each country (or region of larger countries like Canada, Australia, and Russia) so the maps can fit on the CD.
On that note, does anyone know of an open source GIS package that is friendlier to the casual user (using it a few times a year) like ARCView? Last I tried to use it, GIS GRASS (5.3) was not at all intuitive, and the GRASS 5.7 development appears to be geared towards things other than usability.
I'd really like a GIS for tasks like travel maps, garden planning, etc, and GIS GRASS doesn't fit the bill (I'm sure it's fine for professional geologists & geographers who use it every day).
As, perhaps, one of the cognescenti I have some agreement with your general premise. The level of deep erudition here, even with regards to computer engineering, is remarkably low.
But as to your specific premise:
You're right, few here will appreciate this distro, even those among the cognoscenti, because some of us work in distinctly different fields. As a physicist or engineer this distro is pretty worthless to me. I have enough intellect, thank you very much, but I am both ignorant and uncaring. It does, however, stand as a generalized example of what can be done and thus appreciated on that level.
I believe it was in this spirit that the story was posted.
KFG
So where is the advance in technology?
I'm a windows geek and find that installing Linux gives me a headache. Don't get me wrong here, I keep trying and am getting used to the headaches.
Along comes Morphix, and that NLP version. It made my eyes pop out. F'ing brilliant.
Now, I'm gobbling up Knoppix distros like candy. I use them desktops and laptops when I want to experiment with Linux and ease my way into the whole thing.
Soon, I'll go dual boot.. and eventually windows will be off all my machines.
It makes it easy for me to get used to Linux.. and my wife to get used to the desktop. I give them to my friends to let them try. I take them to work to let other windows geeks try.
I think this, combined with the awesome GUI's out there, is going to really help Linux in the home.