Knoppix 3.6 released

An anonymous reader writes "Knoppix-3.6 has been released. It is supposed to have the announced FreeNX Server, Kernel 2.4.27 and 2.6.7, KDE 3.2.3. It also includes ndiswrapper to use windows drivers for wlan cards. Download using bittorrent tracker at http://torrent.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/. Remember: Leave your bittorrent client running after the download is finished! Distribution to ftp mirrors will follow tomorrow."

Comments

I know there was a Ce'bit edition....

[Sancho]

but whatever happened to 3.5?

Re:I know there was a Ce'bit edition....

[ggeens]

Version 3.5 exists only as a DVD version. Check this page if you want to download it.

Re:I know there was a Ce'bit edition....

[Sancho]

Oh, that's right, it was LinuxTag..
Regardless, it's just strange. There was a special DVD of 3.4 before the CD version of 3.4 was released...seeing 3.6 just took me by surprise.

Ah well, I usually remaster anyway. Nice to be able to put it all in ram, and I don't care for KDE :)

Oh well...

[vogon jeltz]

I've just finished downloading 3.5 and burning it on 5 CDs. Guess I NEED the new version though in order to try the new ACPI functonality of kernel 2.6 ...
Sh*t, s*it, shi*!

Why no mention on the major sites?

[Futurepower(R)]

I find it odd that version 3.6 is not mentioned on the Official Knoppix site, or on Knoppix.net.

Can someone explain that? Is 3.6 a trojan?

Re:Why no mention on the major sites?

[bug1]

The torrent link at knopper.net links to the provided bitorrent url.

Re:Why no mention on the major sites?

[Julian352]

It is offered on the official bittorrent links, so I'm guessing they want to seed some bittorrents and mirrors before announcing to the world and having hordes of people download it. If they release it by bittorrent, the bandwidth usage is spread across all the users, and once the beginning /. (etc.) demand is satisfied, they can let the rest of the people use ftp. It's a nice way of combatting the /. effect, and the flood to the mirrors that result from it.

There's a forum post on official forums, and the Official torrent link also has the 3.6.

Re:Why no mention on the major sites?

[Anonymous Coward]

The iso is signed by Knopper. We verified this befor e creating the torrent. It is official and will be put an ftp servers soon...

Re:Why no mention on the major sites?

[beegle]

It must've been a timing issue. It's now listed on the official Knoppix site.

Debian ideology++

[Kethinov]

Knoppix is utterly fantastic; I've used it to impress many people with Linux since 3.2.

But it annoys me that Knoppix follows the Debian "stable" ideology to the letter. Yesterday KDE 3.3 is released, today Knoppix 3.6 is released including KDE 3.2. Running the latest version of Knoppix, just like Debian, is hardly up to date. :(

Imagine a Knoppix based off Gentoo's portage tree. Every time you wanted to make a new livecd, you just used portage to compile a totally up to date livecd iso and burned it... if wishes were horses!

Re:Debian ideology++

[dougmc]

But it annoys me that Knoppix follows the Debian "stable" ideology to the letter. Yesterday KDE 3.3 is released, today Knoppix 3.6 is released including KDE 3.2.

I don't pretend to know much about how Debian or Knoppix feel about the use of `stable' software, (and I don't use KDE (or Gnome, for that matter)), but if KDE 3.3 just came out yesterday, that hardly gives the Knoppix guys time to get it put into Knoppix and tested before releasing today. They probably burned their final CD weeks ago and have been testing it, making sure everything was good before they released it. They're not likely to ditch all that just because KDE released a new version.

Imagine a Knoppix based off Gentoo's portage tree.

I'm not so sure that having the very latest and greatest copies of everything is so important, but if you want it, make it -- you do have source and all that. But don't come crying to me when the new version of KDE makes your CD image require 710 MB of space and so it no longer fits on a CD :)

Re:Debian ideology++

[Kethinov]

The trick is to create an adaptive iso making program that has the ability to cut out things you don't need (or add as necessary [new dependencies etc]). Like I don't forsee myself needing a 3 different browsers an E-mail clients.

I understand the Knoppix people try to make good decisions for everyone, but in practice we just end up with yesterday's software today. Just like Debian. Now I know I got marked as troll for saying all this in my parent post, but I really don't care. I used Debian for a long time before I got tired of it and switched back to a source based distro (Gentoo) where you don't have to wait around for people to package and make binaries.

Binaries are great, in theory. But they only work in Windows and Mac because of the centralized distribution. Linux is just too decentralized to be used as a binary OS. Knoppix livecd being based off of Debian was a horrible choice. Mark me as troll again, but that's my belief.

Re:Debian ideology++

[SpaceLifeForm]

The trick you are looking for is called Morphix

Of course, it's based on Knoppix, but you can build your own custom Knoppix if you wish.

Re:Debian ideology++

[Anonymous Coward]

Based on moderation done to your posts, it looks like the Linux community can't handle an experienced user with valid criticisms today.

Re:Debian ideology++

[Kethinov]

I haven't looked into Morphix, but if it's still using apt to create a customized livecd, it's still going to end up with out of date software. Even if you set it to Debian unstable. My biggest problem when I ran Debian was 1. missing packages (ROX filer anyone?) and 2. out of date packages (GNOME 2.6 took FOR EVER).

So I up and switched back to Gentoo. Source based distros don't have the problem of waiting for someone to compile binaries for every package under the sun.

Re:Debian ideology++

[wolf31o2]

Imagine a Knoppix based off Gentoo's portage tree.

That is exactly what we plan on doing for the 2005.0 release.

Stay tuned for more details...

Re:Debian ideology++

[Anonymous Coward]

mmmm compliling Gnoppix (Gentoo Knoppix) from stage1... no crap, fully optimized...only 5 hours from start till X! (thats on my box, YMMV)

Re:Debian ideology++

[focitrixilous P]

But it annoys me that Knoppix follows the Debian "stable" ideology to the letter. Yesterday KDE 3.3 is released, today Knoppix 3.6 is released including KDE 3.2.

It's pretty hard to patch a cdrom. Better to lag behind the cutting edge a little bit for security than find 3.3 has a buffer overflow and then issue 3.6.1 right after everyone has finished downloading the cds.

Not everyone needs to be on the bleeding edge.

Re:Debian ideology++

[jdowland]

I used Debian for a long time before I got tired of it and switched back to a source based distro (Gentoo) where you don't have to wait around for people to package and make binaries.

No, now you just wait around for the compile job to finish - solving the same set of equations that all the other gentoo users are independently solving at the same time.

How many times have you really needed a feature that is present in the most cutting-edge versions anyway? I asked myself this question and the answer was `nearly never'.

I think the obsession with running bleeding edge software is some kind of rebellion against the way things were back with windows. However I like to think I'm past rebelling and actually using my computer for something, rather than watching a compile tick by for its own sake.

new Knoppix vs. current or upcoming Mepis?

[timothy]

Having recently discovered that Mepis does certain things better on my hardware than Knoppix (I like the wireless config and other aspects of the system-control panel, for instance), I'm curious if anyone who has downloaded / us using the new Knoppix could compare the two.

I think both of them are excellent (based on recent Knoppixes that is, not having the new one, obviously :)) ...

timothy

Re:new Knoppix vs. current or upcoming Mepis?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was using mepis a while ago. i have a sotec 3120 laptop. when i got it, knoppix was the only distro i could get working easily on it. but the sources.list was kind of wierd, so the older my knoppix install got, the more trouble i had with apt-get. then mepis came out and it recognized my hardware better. it even recognized my wireless card (madwifi driver). unfortunately there was the small problem that if i connected or disconnected the power cord while the machine was running it would freeze up. but the sources.list was a lot cleaner, so installing packages worked better. but then around knoppix 3.4 or so knoppix started recognizing my wireless card. of course mepis still had acpi working and knoppix didn't, but i'd rather have no acpi at all than have my computer freeze when the power goes out. the main thing i like about mepis, though, is that they haven't done any monkeying around with anything installed by apt-get, whereas in knoppix, stuff has been removed to save space. anyway, by the time knoppix recognized my wireless card, i had switched to slackware long ago (acpi worked perfectly, easy install, doesn't get in my way) and haven't looked back. now i find knoppix more useful as a rescue/public computer cd than mepis since it has more packages. i do miss apt-get, now that i run slackware, except when the package i want in unstable is borked, but in general i spend far less time fighting with my computer in slackware, even though installing software takes longer. (i know that this is probably because i don't fully understand how to use apt-get and how to build packages from source in a debian-friendly way, but i have too much actual work to do on my computer to be bothered with learning debian's quirks. slackware didn't force me to learn nearly as much. anyway, now i'm sounding like a fanboy, so i'll stop)

Re:new Knoppix vs. current or upcoming Mepis?

[stefanlasiewski]

I'm curious, why are you comparing Mepis vs Knoppix? Because of the hardware detection?

Knoppix is amazing because it's a Linux distro on a bootable CD.

Mepis looks like yet another installable Linux distro.

Re:new Knoppix vs. current or upcoming Mepis?

[77Punker]

MEPIS is a fully usable LiveCD that does everything it should PLUS it has a good installer.

Mepis also a nice bootable LiveCD

[timothy]

Mepis is rather nice either way (Knoppix, too) -- as a LiveCd or running from a hard disk. Aesthetically, I prefer the Knoppix desktop, but the nice little network config app in Mepis is a very nice touch.

Tim