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18 Live Linux CDs -- In A Row
prostoalex writes "OSNews carries "a quick roundup" of 18 (they are not kidding, eighteen) live Linux distributions. Among those who made the list: Basilisk (based on Fedora), BeatrIX (based on Debian/Knoppix/Ubuntu), Berry Linux (based on Fedora), Damn Small Linux (based on Debian), FreeSBIE (based on Free BSD), Gnoppix (Knoppix/Debian plus Gnome, now merged with Ubuntu), Kanotix (modified Knoppix/Debian), Knoppix (the first big live CD, based on Debian), Luit (Debian/Xfce, rox filing system), Mandrake Move (based on Mandrake), Mepis (Debian), Morphix (modular Debian), PCLinuxOS Preview (a Mandrake fork), Sam (Mandrake/Xfce), SLAX (Slackware), Suse 9.1 and 9.2 (rpm-based), Ubuntu Live (Debian), Xfld (Debian/Damn Small Linux and Xfce). To call it a review would be a stretch, although a helpful paragraph on each operating system's claim to fame is provided."
Lemme fire up catalyst real quick and give you a few more to play with...
Seriously, for those who'd like to play with creating their very own custom Live CD, Gentoo's catalyst makes it really easy. It takes a bit of time, and could use some better docs, though.
Not a review (either), but this website http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php?sort= &showonly= list a lot more than 18 live CD's (and even it is not complete).
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
There are 200 odd liveCDs on this linkp
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.ph
While knoppix each day has less and less apps, this one is getting more and more. And the machines which typically hang with knoppix (or knoppix based), even using all the "no" options, dynebolic loads happily. Not to mention 64mb ram machines, thankfully window maker based desktop for us in poor countries where these kind of machines abund.
Artix
Your Linux, your init.
Use http://www.morphix.org/ and make your own main module? It's basically a chroot Debian install.
You bootstrap Debian (stable, testing, unstable), pack it up into a compressed file, and plop it into your Morphix directory and generate the ISO. It can be as bare-bones as you want it to be.
You do all your work within a Debian chroot, so you get to use all the wonderful Debian tools.
There is no way to find the right Linux distro for you unless you try some out and that is the beauty of these Live cd's. When looking for a new car do you get overwhelmed because there are about 5 bajillion different make/model/options when looking for a car? A computer is the same, you must do some research and do some test driving first. First of all writeups like these should be of some help to you though you might also want to find a friend or someone you know that uses Linux and get their opinion. Obviously since you are a "power user" you should be able to handle it just fine.
For some recomendations I would check out SLAX and Ubunutu (Live cd download is here
I personally use SUSE, but their Live-CD sucks. If you decide to go with a KDE based distro that is what I would choose. If you like GNOME more I would go with Ubuntu. Also, although a lot of people seem to like Knoppix, I have never really liked it too much (mostly because of the messy menu structure). So there you go, try them out. What have you got to lose (besides some time downloading, bandwidth, and a couple blank cd's)?