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Best Live Linux For Christmas Giving?
trustedserf writes "This year I am including a bootable Live Linux CD in many of my Christmas cards. As I'll be making the copies myself I may even change the default desktop background to something personal, or Christmasy before running it off on cheap CD-Rs. The objective is to show people the easiest possible route to using a linux desktop so that they will be: A) Aware and B) Pleasantly surprised. About Christmas they may also have more time to try it out too. Naturally, I'm thinking of Gnoppix, but there are other options.. I use KDE, so I have to decide between it and Gnome. Bearing in mind my objectives, what distro would you choose. Also, importantly, is it possible any of them will damage their hardware (monitors with incorrect refresh etc.) I would be *very* unhappy if that happened. How many of them would fail to boot, leaving a bad impression? Which way would you go about it for maximum "WOW"."
A linux live CD by itself isn't going to get a normal person to run it. You need to put all sorts of easy to run/access games on it, plus Firefox. Then maybe... possibly... someone will actually use it.
Now I can see why you have no friends.
windows-xp-professional-with-keygen.iso
Mandrake has a live cd, and seems to be the best solution for a beginner. I have converted several people to Mandrake and they all seem to be happy with their solution
I'd skip the Linux live CD and give a charitable donation to The Human Fund instead. It's much more meaningful.
I would think twice before doing. Seriously, how many people, whether family or friends, wouldn't think of you as a fanatic or total nerd if you went around giving Linux as a christmas gift.
I would suggest pulling some of your more technically inclined relatives/friends aside, and just show them Linux running on your machine.
My family wouldn't know what "boot from this cd" means. Good luck!
Mepis Linux is another good choice. It's also very easy to install to the hard drive if they are impressed with the LiveCD version. It's also just one CD. http://www.mepis.org
...it's that people hate to be converted and they hate to be preached to. If your friends aren't looking to change their OS then just forget your little crusade because all you're going to do is piss people off.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
I am including a bootable Live Linux CD in many of my Christmas cards
:)
interesting choice, as i'm guessing at least half the people you send to don't even know what linux is. i'd like to know how this turns out
also, my suggestion is you is to include some sort of leaflet into getting them started, do they even know how to boot a bootable CD? just thought i should point this out.
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
I am not a linux guru but from the perspective of the average person go with something that has a simple GUI interface. All that fancy commandline stuff scares people.
Another nifty customization would be to set the Firefox Home Page to something personal and/or Christmas'ie so they are reminded again of your gift (cool idea) when they fire up the browser.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
Christmux.
has a lot of punch... Firefox, Multimedia and easy set up....
I'd hate to be a member of your family, worst gift ever.
Honestly.
Don't give people these discs, unless everyone in your family is a geek no one will even use it or know what to do with it.
Most people who use Windows don't even know how to install that and that's really easy.
Mepis is Debian based; much lower barrier to admission than other Debian distros.
Nothing says, 'I'm cheap' on Christmas like giving out burned CD's of free OS's! I bet you gave out bootable floppies of FreeDOS before you got a burner!
He never said it was his gift, just that he was including it in his cards.
I just want to say that I think this is an awesome idea. I've been trying to convince my dad to switch to Linux for some time now- maybe I can guilt him into trying Linux out if I disguise it as a Christmas present!
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
This is like a relative trying to convert you to Colgate from Crest....
lame gift.
Give em a linux powered media player or something useful...
What about putting photos and music on it and use it as the card itself...
SuSE Live CD. I've found it has better general hardware support (don't want it to coredump on someone) and the default program pack does a pretty good job.
Don't give people these discs, unless everyone in your family is a geek no one will even use it or know what to do with it.
...and the ones that are geeks will already know where to get it if they want it.
Well, what I'm thinking is that since a lot of people have numerous guests around during the holidays, if you have nice furniture these discs could make cool extra coasters to keep your relatives from sloshing their Scotch all over your new coffee table.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I'm jumping on the "this is dumb" bandwagon.
Give them something useful like Firefox. Leave a note:
1) Install
2) Use for 7 days
3) Send me a thank you card for saving you
Ubuntu is the coolest for sure, although it has more hardware problems around ACPI than any other linux I've tried.
nothing is real
I would go with knoppix, KDE is much more windowizy and many windows users cannt even tell the difference. It is very user friendly and has alot of extra apps that are really usefull. If they finally decide to make the switch I would strong suggest Fedoria. Its very easy to install and update/maintain. The only thing I would suggest is for them to just burn all there files on a CD before installing. Anyway goodluck on your mission!
The people that say that this smacks of conversion and fanaticalism are correct. I mean, put it in the xmas cards if you want, but don't get all upset if no one installs it.
I mean seriously, how many people really want to think about OS's during Christmas?
This is a better Halloween gift then anything. You can be that crazy old man that gives out Linux Distros instead of candy bars.
On a serious note.
This puts a thought in my head.
I have pretty much 'zero' interest in running Linux thankyouverymuch.
One of the reasons I don't desire to attempt it is because of the headache factor. Command line commands I don't know, drivers I don't know where to find, sound card that won't work.... blah, blah blah.
All I know is that when I install windows it comes up as advertised.
See, I think this guy is onto something. I just don't think he is thinking of the correct use for it.
What about a seriously generic Linux distro where a newbie like myself could put it in his CD drive, it would boot into some sort of DOS like equivelant where it would ask some simple questions about partioning and formatting the drive, then 20 minutes later it would finish the install and boot me up to a GUI desktop with video drivers installed (well generic ones at least), sound drivers installed and firefox installed.
I am not aware that such a creature exists. It probably does though. But that is one reason I haven't attempted it. I don't feel like taking on a learning curve that for me would start on the install. I can learn about dealing with drivers and command lines and such later. Just get me to a GUI desktop so I have some sort of baseline to work from.
You're kidding, right?
If one of my relatives tried to use a christmas card to evangelize an operating system, they'd be spending Christmas outside in the barn.
This
If I'm on your christmas list, just fill it with pr0n intstead -- then the knoppix-feature of not touching the hard drive is pretty useful; so parents don't see the stuff in my browser history.
I have messed around with several live Linux CD's and have settled on SLAX Popcorn, which is based on Slackware. http://slax.linux-live.org/download.php It comes standard with Firefox, Thunderbird and MPlayer already installed, and being Slack-based, it is extremely smooth and stable. I can't see that it would harm any PC hardware as it probes quite thoroughly while booting. I have booted several PC's and laptops with it and all major items funtioned correctly without any tweaking needed. It can boot totally into RAM and therefore runs quite fast and saving the configs to a USB drive, hard drive or floppy is a breeze. AND best of all, it's 137megs so it will fit on a miniature CD, for better envelope stuffing!! Hope this helps, and good luck with your project!
just put a message on the first boot screen that says they must send copies of the Live CD to 7 friends and family within one week or they'll have bad luck... like Timmy Tomelson in Desmodo, Nebrasksa who didn't believe the curse and was sued by the RIAA, for illegally downloading copies of John Tesh at the Red Rocks or Bostuli Smith of New Townslope, New Hampshire whose liquid cooled beowulf cluster sprung a leak destroying his systems, and rendering his attempt to compile a complete Gentoo distributin in record time (less than 3 weeks) an utter failure.
I'm hoping this will make it into the drafts of GPL 3.
I've been trying to figure out a decent gift for my Dad, and I was thinking the new O'reilly Knoppix Hacks book would be a good choice. He used to love computers, but he feels like they've gotten too complex for him, and he's totally frustrated from dealing with Windows virus and spyware issues. The book looks like it's got some good info on dealing with those, plus knoppix might be a fun little toy for him to play with that'd make computers simple again. It'd also let him know a bit about what I've been babbling on and off to them about for years now :-)
The idea of giving them just a CD though? Lame. The CD with some decent instructions tailored to their needs, if they actually have them then maybe you've got something there. I'm personally going to go check the book out in the store before I order it for him.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
Well, you could just pop the browser up with the full text of the GPL, and have a dancing RMS elf walk them through gearhead freedom issues that no one but us really care about...
How about... if it were the Christmas card, and you gave instructions on how to boot it, and that it's *safe* and doesn't install anything to their hard drive. Some people might try it out.
Have it boot up, pop open a browser and show some online christmas card that you know is safe.
After that closes, have a stocking or something that says "click me" which is really a folder with a bunch of games in it.
That's more like something someone would want...
That almost makes it a good idea. Still pretty geeky though.
Send just the cd with simple instructions on it, and have it boot into the desktop and load a slideshow or similar.
Might actually get some people to try it.
People don't know how to boot off a CD. You'll need to include directions for that, and it's difficult, since every BIOS has a different method.
Also, tell people that they should keep it around even if they don't understand it. A friend recently re-imaged her computer (at Dell's recommendation) because some DLL was missing or something. The data on their disk could have been saved with a bootable CD.
A misconception that I've recently heard is that OSS isn't worth anything if you're not a programmer. Not sure how that plays into your card, but it was a new one on me.
The RFC, the server, or the client?
Why not give them The OpenCD instead? Non-techies aren't likely to switch to Linux easily, but you can still promote open source by giving them programs they need for their current (Windows) operating system. It's much more likely they'll use this than a Linux distro.
Which way would you go about it for maximum "WOW"."
Buy them a Mac
Depends on who you send it to, ofcourse. But make sure in any case it has THE cardgames, not the ones from Gnome, but really, exactly the SAME ones as in Windows. Otherwise it won't do, because they'll be DIFFERENT and therefore BAD. For the rest, have lots of dumb backgrounds with kittens or other cute animals, scarcely dressed women - actresses maybe, some action sport pictures, a car or two and a holiday location that they could never afford, perhaps very cheesy cherubs with corny christmas wishes, that kind of stuff. Don't forget some really heavy mouse cursors, and perhaps a very bomastic start-up sound, followed by santa's voice (linux originated in Finland after all).
That's how people judge an OS, you know.
They'll think it's cool. In fact, they'll think it's so cool they will show it to anyone who comes to visit them. And that's when we'll unexpectedly pull them in on superior security, stability, standards compliance and ofcourse the preemptible kernel...
OK, maybe not, but they'll still think it's a cool demo cd, ho ho.
Where would we be if Wheel had hid her round rock in a cave instead of showing everyone how it rolls?
I currently use a hacked/customized version of Slax see Slax. I carry it on a 1GB USB Drive that includes customized versions of Firefox, Thuderbird and Samba plus many more modules. So far this setup has been truly convenient for me. On occasions when I find myself without a laptop but near a PC that is able to boot USB drives (I have yet to come across a PC that did not), all I do is stick the drive in the USB port, boot up in trimmed down KDE environment, use FireFox to check Yahoo/Gmail/Hotmail accounts, and Thunderbird to poll my personal domain accounts. Once done, reboot, voila, no cookies etc. left behind. No need for someone to log-on to their pre-installed OS accounts, nor to suffer the embarrassment of accidental viewing of history list of pr0n sites that the person had surfed last .... :D
SIG ALERT
Why can't people on Slashdot ever just answer the question that's posed? The first thing everyone does is declare that the fact that the question is even being asked it totally ridiculous and how dare the poster be so stupid as to even consider asking it? Can't people just be helpful without being assholes?
___ alwaysBETA.com - Hey, you've got nothing better to do.
... give these people whatever you wouldn't mind having them ask you questions about. It sounds like you're setting yourself up to be tech support guy for your christmas card list.
I understand that you are being thoughtfull because you believe that your friends will be better off by running linux instead of windows.
Still, what if you received a bible, coran,scientology book or a Chick Track from a friend that is concerned for your soul. Perhaps even got an AOL CD from a friend that wants you to switch to a "better" service.
Send them something that they like, not something that you think might be good for them. Do not be an evangelist in christmass time. You might have less christmas cards to send next year.
Cheers,
Adolfo
One of the rules of gift giving is to never give a pet as a gift. It requires a level of responsibility and commitment that cannot be forced upon a person.
I get the feeling that trying to switch someone to another OS somehow falls under the same etiquette.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
"but he did use it as his primary desktop for a while. "
Why did he stop using it? Was it due to an issue with Linux or something else?
I've had great luck with Knoppix.
You might want to include a FAQ with questions like "Why is this running slower than Windows?" pertaining to the fact that it's running from a cd and not the hard drive.
Just remember they can run into problems.
Computer is not set up to boot from CD.
Drive won't read CD-R's.
Many other problems can arise. Some of these problems should have no reflection on installed Linux, but people will associate them forever with Linux.
Also use regular CD-R's, mini ones and business card size can cause all sorts of odd problems. Some people have slot drives, or put their computers on the side, etc.
One person I know hasn't been able to get online for months, and has spent hundreds on getting their computer fixed. I gave them a linux CD (install) after making sure they didn't mind that everything would be wiped, and they knew enough to configure their dial up. I haven't heard back yet, so maybe they're dead, or catching up on porn.
My suggestion for a window manager is definitely Gnome. I'm no dummy, but KDE seems to have a bigger learning curve. My coworkers are happily using Gnome, and don't really notice a difference from Windows 98. As they were already moved to Firefox and Thunderbird, I didn't have much trouble.
As far as the busted hardware, I am one of the few people (that will admit it on here) who blew up a monitor with a wanky custom Knoppix, NOT the one from Knoppix, and probably due mostly to a tard sandwich I enjoyed earlier that day. It can happen, but most likely not - if you shut off any way to get into the 'mess with your video' at start up, everyone should be fine. At worst, they're out a cool Linux CD, at best they'll call you up and ask how to get it working. (Then you're in trouble - at least it's not Windows - 'Uh, ok, go into the registry...' Ugh.)
I think its a fine idea, and encourage you to do it. There may be one person out there who really appreciates the ability to use their computer again, if only to surf the web and use email without fear.
So ends my Expert and Unassailable Take on This. (Which was really just to get you to read this comment - I know how /.ers can't resist a challenge :)
Have you tried distccKNOPPIX?? I haven't needed one yet, but that's the one I'd try first.
While it may seem like a nice thing to give out live cd's for linux, you might go fruther giving out a copy of the The OpenCD instead. It's a compliation of open source software for windows. You can also compile your own, I like to give out CDs with Firefox, Open Office, GIMP, Gaim, and a few free games. A bootable linux distro is just likely to confuse people, but software that they can use on their computers all the time without having to boot into a new OS is useful. As a side bonus, most people don't know about OSS or realize that the software is free, so it seems even more valueable ;)
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
What kind of inconsiderate asshole gives Linux as a *Christmas present* to his non-geek friends and family? This is the worst kind of gift-giving - the kind given for the benefit of the person giving it rather than the pleasure of the recipient. I'm vaguely reminded of the episode of The Simpsons where Homer buys Marge a bowling ball for her birthday.
Christ, what a bunch of cocks.
I've been a linux user since 95, work with it, code for living and all that, but ...
to go preaching around with it like that? It just sickens me. I mean I go absolutely ballistic with all these jesus-this-jesus-that religious f*ckers. Don't do the same under the linux label, please.
Not to mention, I still don't understand why do we have to assimilate every one of those barely-interested-in-computers to using linux? While admittedly windows still serves them better. My better half has accepted linux, but see it from her that she does it for no other reason than me. And I can only imagine what people like her would think after receiving a freaking live cd for xmas. What some of you guys fail to understand is that they just dont care. They should, but they wont. I mean, I know I should care about politics, but frankly I don't give a rats ass about that either. Getting a political pamphlet as a xmas card from some "friend" of mine would just tick me, nothing else.
1 Earth is warming, 2 It's us, 3 it's royally bad, 4 we need to take action NOW
News for nerds indeed!
I like the idea. Why not try it out and give a report back later? This is what I think will happen: They will ask you the next time you visit what you gave them because it didn't work in their cd-player or computer. You sit down and show them and they will think it's a fun idea.
Then. The next time people in the news mentions Linux, they will say something like: "Yeah! I've tried Linux. I'm up-to-date in this computer-place-thingy-stuff. This intur-newt-thing."
It's fun. It's nerdy. I can't see why all you so called "nerds" are so negative. If it doesn't hurt anybody. Why is this such a bad idea?
Insert `fortune -o` here
I really like this idea. And if I get a little bit of spare time in the next few weeks I might just do the same for (some of) the christmas cards I'll be sending this year.
Do you have any plans for typing up a small page somewhere with the results of the efforts you put into this?
It's 19:11:42. Do You Know Where Your Meat Body Is?
The point was not that "gifts which provide you with hours of fun are bad", but rather that "gifts which require more hours of unwanted _work_ and _effort_ on the receiver's side are bad."
Legos or video games are an example of a good gift. They didn't require any unwanted effort from you.
An example of a bad gift, on the other hand, would be if I gave you an XBox game if you don't even own an XBox. And then pestered you to play it. It requires more effort on your side than it required on mine. You get to spend some 150$ on an XBox, whereas I only paid some 50$ for the game. Plus the time spent going to the shop to buy one, etc.
E.g., since you mention a bike, giving a bike to an adult who doesn't already know how to ride one is a bad gift. It requires a lot more effort from them to learn to use it, than it took on your side to carry it out of the shop. And it's unwanted effort: if they wanted a bike, they would have already bought one.
And the bike makes for a good analogy with the Linux CD. It throws someone up a learning curve that they probably didn't want in the first place. To get any use out of it, they have to spend days learning new stuff. Days which they most likely didn't want to spend that way. Definitely not around christmas.
So basically, as was already said, unless you know for sure they're interested in Linux, I'd avoid that kind of a gift.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Audacity
BitTorrent - probably doesn't belong
Blender
FlightGear - along with our local scenery area
Gaim
Gimp
GnuGo - never seen any interest in this (duh)
GTK - for Gimp and Gaim, but it adds confusion
Inkscape - version 0.40 due any day now
Maxima
Mozilla - FireFox and Thunderbird
Mplayer
OpenOffice.org
Python - for the geeky kids
VideoLan
All this crap fits on one CD. I don't usually distribute it in quantity, but it comes in handy rather often. No one wants everything on it, but there is something for everyone. I also include an HTML file that lists descriptions of each program and links to the project web sites. Whenever someone tells me about the "free" copy of some commercial package they have, I just give them the CD and tell them which legally free package to load instead. In some cases, the free version offers something they don't have with the ripped-off one they've been using.
One guy at work actually wanted to stream video over his network at home. I gave him the CD and said "install VideoLan". After some setup issues, he has everything he wanted and is rather happy with it. It really goes over well when you fulfill an need people have.