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XLiveCD: Cygwin and X For Windows On A Live CD

Posted by timothy on from the animated-plastic dept.

mallumax writes "OSnews is running a story on XliveCD which runs an X server (from X.org) from the CD using Cygwin. Also included are awk, sed, perl, vim, bash, grep, other text utilities, and most importantly an OpenSSH client. XliveCD is being developed by University Technology Services of Indiana University. Now you can carry Cygwin with you! I have been looking for something like this for a long time. Torrent link."

5 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. The point? by Random+Data · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was going to ask what the point was, given the number of Live CDs such as Knoppix, etc. Then I actually RTFA and they suggest it's for use in public access Windows boxes, where a reboot may not be available but running stuff from the CD is.

    I still suspect VNC on a USB key or CD might be easier, and the difference between forwarding X and using VNC isn't that much in my experience.

    1. Re:The point? by fearlezz · · Score: 5, Interesting
      they suggest it's for use in public access Windows boxes
      Great idea. There's only one problem with public access Windows boxes: they cannot be trusted. Public access machines may have keyloggers, backdoors and stuff. I don't want anyone to see my password because I login from a windows box. Don't trust internet cafe's... So, personally, I was thinking more of using this when I'm visiting family and friends.
      --
      .sig: No such file or directory
  2. Re:I don't get it. by BrynM · · Score: 5, Informative
    What is the point?
    Consider these ideas:
    • Take a CD to work and use X on any machine with a CD drive
    • Use this as a framework to add more applications like dev tools, auditing tools or desktop apps (probably forking the project, but interesting)
    • Use it to prove to the ill tempered that *Nix is not all bad and quite usable
    • Find a way to port it to Flash drives and such
    • Another valid use of BitTorrent :D (the download of this iso that is)
    Remember that this is an early version. The best uses are to come probably.
    --
    US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
  3. Re:I don't get it. by dario_moreno · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see the point for portables computers with WiFi or GPRS Internet access, which can be a pain (or simply impossible) to setup under Linux. Imagine that you can borrow a laptop from time to time at work to go on the road, and cannot afford to take hours to install cygwin, but with this solution instead you can in seconds connect to your remote Unix server.

    --
    Google passes Turing test : see my journal
  4. Re:I don't get it. by MoneyMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The point is that you can sit at any windows machine, which may not necessarily be your own, and have a decent set of utilities to use.

    I personaly work on many machines on any given day. The majority of which I do not own. I'm not "allowed" by my customer to go and just start throwing applications onto their system willy-nilly.

    With this, I can work on any machine, using a shell I know, (bash), have a functional Xserver available, and access to a bajillion other GNU utilities without ever installing a single app.

    Ever needed to tail a file in windows? It's there. Yes, there is a tail app for windows, and it's free. The point here is that this doesn't need to be installed. Grep? same thing.

    Just boot to a LiveCD distro, you say? But I need to see what's happening on this Virii / Spyware ridden hunk o' junk while it's running windows.

    Could I build my own suite? Yeah... but why would I? This has what I need.

    Kudos and my thanks to the Cygwin team.