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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.
Sheesh (tm)
The specialization of Linux continues. Soon we'll have linux for people born in february, Linux for spider lovers, linux for travelers..
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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.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
That was to be expected sooner or later, the linux kernel turning conscious. I for one welcome our new live CD linux overlords.
you insensitive clod
Wow, I'm a bioengineering major and I cant stress how useful this is, it like almost every computer in our lab has a different function due to software problems. After looking at the applications that are on the disc, I bet this well be big in schools. I wonder if they have considered doing this for other fields...
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.
shouldn't that be "knoppices"?
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
As more and more bioinformatics parties switch to a single biostandard distribution, this leaves bioroom for bioinformatics worms to biospread unchecked.
It's bioestimated that it would take only three biodays for a bioworm to biospread itself enough to bioDDoS an bioinnocent biostandar with as biomany as three biodozen biomachines, bioleaving biotelnet biosomewhat biolaggy.
...is that it's happening at all today.
Bootable DOS diskettes (not Windows, AFAIK) worked only because there was such a limited range of hardware to support. Typically the games started with a menu ("Sound card?", "Video card?", "Joystick?"). Since Windows went 32-bit, the range and complexity of the hardware we use has exploded. It's almost unimaginable to find an operating system that will correctly autodetect and autoconfigure all the possible combinations of hardware out there.
And yet, this is what is happening. It is not 100% perfect but it's good enough to use for wide-scale distribution of software.
I predict a big future for this method of delivering software.
a new topic(and icon) exclusively for Knoppix ?
getSexySig();
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?
What I would really like to see (and possibly create) would be a portable Knoppix distribution. Since Debian runs on more architecture than any other major distro, and Knoppix is Debian based, it should be fairly simple port Knoppix. How cool would to be to be able to run Linux on any mac, RISC workstation, or server with no installation?
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
Even more, MAYBE you can boot on a Virtual Machine and not need to restart... The only limitation here would be bootup time.
Bite my shiny metal... oops... Nevermind!
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/KnoppixRemas teringHowto
Build it the way you want and burn it!
Don't forget to grab an inexpensive USB memory toy and you have it all!
The idea that these distros represent, however, could be very useful to gamers however. Games could come on a bootable CD at which point the game designer has complete control over the OS environment.
With Knoppix, as long as you can boot the CD, you have all the applications you need, pre-installed, pre-configured, pre-tested, pre-EVERYTHING.
It's all about the apps.
(and a rock solid OS to run the apps on)
Pardon the beauraucratic buzzword, but this seem like the beginnings of a really cool trend. Imagine if everyone had their own customized knoppix and USB drive. We could stop at any terminal, and immediately have our favorite working environment and saved files.
Of course, this is merely a step towards the ultimate goal of not needing to carry anything or maybe just a small drive, and plugging that in and having instant access.
The point, though, is that this has the potential to make anybody without a laptop a lot more portable.
How about a knoppix without all the openoffice stuff, that is specifically designed to recover data from crashed PCs? There is a "super-recovery" live cdrom, but it's pretty old.
Or, how about a knoppix which searches a pc and a network for security vunerabilities? I think phlak linux is supposed to be sort of like that. But phlak linux doesn't work very well.
I would suggest that, by default, such versions boot to command line. If any gui, it should be lightweight, like fluxbox or something. I'm talking about something for pros.
So where is the advance in technology?
> BioPython, Rasmol, Bioperl, Bioconductor. For more information please see the bioknoppix home page.
Yes, but can you build biowulf cluster of these ?
- Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
- Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
I'd love to work with others on this. I have tons of ideas relating to it.
-cp-
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
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.
Man, I'd pay real money for this! Imagine if you could build a Linux CD to scan Windows HD's for Spyware and Viruses! There'd be no need to even boot the host OS and install anything to do it.
Of course, I don't know of any software in Linux that will scan for Windows crapware. {sigh}
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Bio-Linux
BioBrew
DNALinux
I'm a developer for one of the above projects. Competition is interesting.
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
Sorry to put you down. But my vote, as native german speaker, goes to "Knoppixe".
The "e" is pronounced as a schwa vovel. Plus the "K" is not silent!
So...ogres are like KNOPPIX?
If any of you were wondering how to do something similar with Windows then now you can! I realise that this being slashdot there are going to be flames about why would you do this etc? For the simple reason that not all porgrams are available on Linux.
Anyway coming back to the topic of how to do this for Windows. Well first of all there is this thing called Windows PE (Pre-installtion Environment) which is basically a Microsoft created bootable Windows CD for computer OEMs. Its basically a very stripped down version of Windows XP (or Win2K3) with just a command prompt and the ability to run some simple GUI programs. But this WinPE is normally only available to OEMs and system builders (but it isn't hard to find online retailers for it). However WinPE isn't very useful from a full usable system point of view. So someone has come up with a way to make your own customized WinPE like bootable Windows CD. All you need is the instructions and your own Windows CD to do it. Here's where you can find more information -
Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD