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Grokking Knoppix
chronicon writes "Knowing Knoppix is a beginner-friendly, 134 page freely downloadable book (released under the GNU Free Documentation License in PDF format) designed to familiarize new users with the Knoppix LiveCD distribution, GNU/Linux in general, and (as listed first on the description) Windows disaster recovery using Knoppix."
What would be interesting is a customised knoppix, made for beginners who are trying to learn to use Linux.
;)
I'm thinking of things like tutorials, instructions, etc, all available on startup, so that people who don't know what to do have an easy way to learn.
I guess it goes on my to-do list...along with a graphical front-end to portage, untainting my kernel, and recharging my iPod
However, if you're looking for something that gives you more detail on how to use Knoppix and extend it, you might want to check out the O'Reilly title Knoppix Hacks
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Blogs celebrate the New Year too :-)
Well... Lets see... First off... There was a time that I had heard of linux, but never used it. And in those days I spent a better part of a month reading about the different distrobutions. I finally settled on setting up Mandrake 7.1, dual booting with my comfortable windows.
I am still no expert with linux, however I'm comfortable enough with it for most tasks. But a book like this may help me learn more about linux in general to go from a basic Luser, to power user.
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
Buddy: "My XP is trashed and I can't get any of my files."
Me: "Here's a Knoppix disk. Put it in your CD and hit the reset button. Save the files you need then re-install XP. In the meantime, you can check your files using OpenOffice."
Buddy gets his files back, uses OO, is too lazy to re-install XP, calls me up to get him back on the web. He never ever reads any manual but we have a new linux user.
Most people never read manuals. The beauty of Knoppix is that they don't have to. It usually detects everything beautifully even on 'not-quite-up-to-it' machines.
I, on the other hand, do RTFM but giving a geek a manual is basically preaching to the choir.
Does this book evaluate the various versions out there? I played with the standard knoppix a bit, and as a new year's present have just started a torrent download of the Games Knoppix. I have never seen such a fast torrent dl
So, what lies ahead for Linux/Knoppix this year? Will it be the year that let the ant finally cross over the elephant's back? Or will it be another slogging inning, cricket as usual?
released under the GNU Free Documentation License in PDF format.
Kind of amusing that open source documentation should be released in a proprietary format.
I'm not sure what dork modded this insightful.
I've got my 14 year old baby brother using linux with knoppix (zero linux experience) and I've also given it to an MCSE friend of mine who, like any MCSE, knows jackshit about proper computing and now is TRULY learning.
Yes, anonymous dork, knoppix is often used to familiarise new users.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
I have handed out several Knoppix discs to people with Windows problems. The results have been mixed but one guy will run Knoppix until he buys his next computer with Windows bundled.
If all you want to do is check your email once a week you don't want to be bothered. You want the computer to be an appliance. You don't care if it's Windows or Linux. You just want it to work.
Strangely, the guy who turned me on to Knoppix is a die-hard gamer with a machine that is greater than the sum of all my boxen put together. He runs XP.
Something similar happened to a friend of mine.
The copy WinXP on his machine decided to lose the ability to boot up properly. It would show the XP screen....and right before it would go to the login screen, it would reset itself.
Okaayyy. Well, he stuck XP on another drive to try to recover his data. XP on the second drive could see the first drive, read any of the data, except for -his- data, because his data was in "My Documents", which apparently windows will only read if it is the copy of windows it was created with.
So, can't get to his data, now what?
I pulled out my trusty knoppix cd, popped it in, and we were able to recover his data.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get him completely away from windows. He still uses it for games, and linux for everything else. He also acts pissed when windows is mentioned. It's a start.
...
Come to think of it, this sort of thing is what got me into FreeBSD. The machine I was using was running WinNT back in the day. It died one night to a virus or it ate itself or something.
My dad was pissed, and the computer went to his work to get fixed and I didn't have a computer for 6 months.
Needless to say, that burned me pretty bad, and a switch away from windows was an easy thing to do.