Knoppix

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I just booted into Knoppix on my new PC, via a Linux live CD. It's pretty neat. I thought in order to run Linux I'd have to download it from Source Forge (or similar), set up a partition, and dual boot, which would void the warranty and risk totally messing up my computer. But with Knoppix, all I had to do was put the DVD in, restart the computer, then press F9 to get into the boot menu and tell it to boot from the CD ROM drive. It's somewhat slower than running an OS that's actually on the hard drive, but if I want to, there's an option in the main menu to install Knoppix on the hard disk. I've gotten the hang of most of it, though there are a few annoyances, namely a weird screen flickering phenomenon and the fact that I can't seem to change my desktop wallpaper. And there's no Flash player for Konqueror, so I can't watch YouTube unless I get Firefox for Linux.

Has anyone else used a Linux live CD?

You can install Ubuntu using Wubi and not void your warranty. It creates a virtual partition which you can boot to inside your Windows partition.

If I wanted a virtual operating system, I'd just get an emulator, because a virtual OS is just that: virtual; it's not integrated with the hardware like a regular OS is. I'd still be running Windows underneath Linux.

No its a little different from that.

Yes, i've been using them for years. And there are plenty of other flavours to choose from:

http://www.distrowatch.com/
(Not all of those can be booted in Live mode, but some can, like Ubuntu. And some are pure Live OS'es that cannot be installed.)

No, it's not emulated. It just creates a virtual partition inside Windows. You still have to reboot in to it.

Actually, Ubuntu doesn't really appeal to me. I've heard it's supposed to be more user friendly than other distros, and when I hear phrases like "user friendly" and "easy to use", the image that comes to mind is of a minimal product that does not have all the capabilities and power of the full version (particularly capabilities that would confuse a newbie). I think a Debian-based OS like Knoppix is a good compromise - not as cripplingly oversimplified as Ubuntu but not as overcomplicated as Slackware. But I don't have much experience with Linux, so I don't know how ignorant I come off as saying that; that's just my understanding of it.

Ubuntu is NOT oversimplified. At all. Just try it.

If you really are against it, try Fedora. Which needs its own parition.

Ubuntu is really your only option if you want another OS without voiding warranty.

1) What kind of psychotic warranty do you have that is voided if you partition your hard drive?
2) Konqueror has a flash player (it's just not immediately available in Knoppix, which being Debian-based frowns upon proprietary software) but Konqueror sucks, as does KDE in general. You'll want a Gnome-based distro.

To LotM: Ubuntu is not oversimplified in the least. All the power, capabilities, and features of Debian are still present, but in Ubuntu things come preconfigured so that (for example) my wifi works immediately, rather than me spending an afternoon fighting with undocumented and unsupported workarounds to try to get a Windows driver functioning. If anything, it is distros like Debian and Slackware that are more minimalistic, while Ubuntu and Mint are much more full-featured.

Sorry, I'm a sort of a newbie at Linux (this is my first time using it). I don't even know the difference between KDE and Gnome. Also, when I booted Knoppix, my WiFi and everything else worked perfectly the first time without me having to configure it. What distros do you have to do configuring for?

Arch Linux needs configuring.

Anyway, installing Ubuntu using Wubi wouldn't void your warranty, wouldn't use an emulator and wouldn't be too simple. Especially if you're a newbie to GNU/Linux. Unlike a Live CD, it'll save any changes you make.

That's fine. KDE and Gnome are two different user interfaces (or "desktop environments") for Linux. They have a different look and feel, and different performance. Since they use different bits of common software ("libraries") that are shared by many different applications, there is often a completely different set of applications used by KDE users as opposed to Gnome users, and the application set that fits into Gnome is significantly more complete.

If your Wifi and everything else worked, then you are lucky enough to have a computer that has good device drivers for all its components. You can probably use most any distro. Some solid choices are Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, and Fedora. If you want to spend a lot of time configuring stuff, there's always Slackware, Arch, or Gentoo, but from what I understand there is little benefit to using one of those over an easier distro like Ubuntu or Mint.

I have found one problem with Knoppix. There's no sound.

Hmm. Well, explaining it in terms of windows is a little tricky, but a partial explanation is possible.

First, KDE/gnome are two different systems for displaying the familiar part of all desktops. The close/minimize buttons, the borders around windows, task bars and wallpaper. It doesnt directly include icons for those things... those are from the theme. In this regard, a desktop driven by gnome or KDE is like windows vista aero mode verses classic view. But both are more sophisticated than classic view. In fact, either can pretty much be made to look like the other, and both can look exactly how windows aero looks.

Next, KDE/gnome is a suite of software. Each has their own list of applications for various tasks, browsers, office packages, chat programs. You'll see Debian stick more closely to these as their ethos is purity. Ubuntu and Mint take a different stance and go for functional and attractive. At the heart, all three are the same operating system, with different paint jobs and options. They can all pretty much use each others software.

So now on top of the window manager(KDE/gnome/XFCE/many others), you apply themes. This is similar to changing the colors in windows, but goes farther, allowing buttons and icons to be replaced, as a whole or piece meal, either by someone elses work or your own. This is like changing the mouse pointer icons in windows, but applied to everything you see on screen. task bar numbers/location/size, scroll bars, system fonts... everything. This is how they can emulate each other and windows.

So if you like the default clock but you hate its font... no problem. It can be changed.




Does your printer work too? Did you have to install a driver? No? This is the aim of linux: to negate the need for the user to hunt down drivers. Now it falls down for certain hardware types, and you can get lost in terminal hell, but each six month iteration(in the case of Ubuntu/Mint) nibbles away at these problem areas.

Its people like you, with the adventuresome nature to try something new that pushes the improvement of linux. If you have complaints and file bug reports, you are not disparaging linux, you are helping improve it. This is another important part of linux: that the user has a voice and the user contributes.

I found a way to load Knoppix with the GNOME desktop environment. I must say it's a lot better than KDE. The system settings control panel actually works, and it lets me change my desktop wallpaper and screensaver too. And best of all, it doesn't leave that annoying dotted outline around desktop icons when I unselect them like KDE and the Windows environment do.

I just noticed another thing about Knoppix: the screen flickering is a lot worse when the computer is unplugged. It also seems to depend on what theme I'm using.