Knoppix 6.0.1
As you have probably noticed, there’s a Request A Review page up on this blog and one of the first suggestions was made by Bill Julian. Bill wanted to read a review of Knoppix 6.0.1. In case you aren’t familiar with it, Knoppix is a Debian-based Live CD version of Linux. You can get it on CD or DVD. The DVD contains more software than the CD version. Knoppix is primarily a Live CD version though you can opt to install it on your hard disk if you want. But it has traditionally been geared more toward being used without having to actually install it.
Knoppix is actually an interesting departure since most distros use the Live CD thing to give you a taste of the OS while encouraging you to install it. Knoppix sort of goes the other way in that you really don’t need to install it to use it. As Bill pointed out in his message on the Request A Review page, the Knoppix Wiki will gently poke fun at you if you want to do an install:
Put Knoppix 6.1 Live DVD on your hit list. I have one courtesy of Linux Journal and it is quite good and innovative! Klaus Knopper is back at it.
What I find interesting is that if you want to do an HD installation the reply at the Knoppix Wiki is more-or-less “Why the heck do you want to do that?”
And then “Well if you must just understand we won’t hold your hand.”
Darned impressive as a Live DVD though, and it can be persistent. Take a look Jim.
Surely not what you’d expect from most distributions. Despite the fact that it’s not necessary to try to install it, I decided to do so anyway just to see how well it works and what a newbie desktop user can expect from Knoppix. Note that the boot time into the Live CD desktop was quite fast for me even in VMWare. This version of Knoppix seems speedier in that sense than some of the older ones I remember looking at years ago.
Installation
After using Knoppix 6.0.1 as a Live CD for a while I decided to try the installation just to see what it was like. I clicked the X start button, System Tools then Knoppix HD install to start my installation. I followed the on-screen prompts to partition my hard disk, install Grub, etc. and was able to finish the install without a problem. After that I rebooted my virtual machine and then watched as my newly installed version of Knoppix…never made it through a full boot. I got a kernel panic, among other problems, and was never able to actually boot into Knoppix succesfully.
Oh well…it is, after all, designed to be used as a Live CD not as a distro that you install to your hard disk. But I’m glad I tried the install as it’s always helpful to see what users might run into if they try it.
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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I think that as of KNOPPIX 6.0, at least the CD versions returned to something a bit more usable. The 5.3.1 DVD, the last version I had used, at least for me, was too big and cumbersome and I found myself using other Live CDs because, quite frankly, 98% of the time you don’t need anything more – most of ‘em can set a partition, mount a file system, etc. The FULL KNOPPIX has anything and everything that you may possibly need in a toolchest, so perhaps it is handy to have around, but in practice, most of those tools never actually get used. Still, it is worth having around.
KNOPPIX 6.0 is much more cut down. With the use of LXDE as the default instead of KDE, logging in does not take too long. Only SimplyMEPIS and PCLinuxOS, as live CDs, are reasonable in their use of KDE; both of them are pretty decent in size, not too little, not too much.
Now with a lighter setup, at least for the CD, KNOPPIX is much more usable. The May 2009 edition of Linux Pro Magazine provides a version of the 6.1 DVD, and I actually like it a little better than the 6.0 release. The problem – at least for me – with the 6.0 release, cute as it was, happened to be one of its best features – audio of every action. This is great for the blind, but it was pretty slow and a bit crazy for me – I was always ahead of it. For any blind friends we may have, 6.0 was AWESOME! 6.1, even in DVD form, is nowhere near the monster that 5.3.1 was, and I think that Klaus took it in a very good direction with the 6.* series.
I’m back to being glad that I have a copy, and apparently I wanted it so much that I wanted an EXTRA mag! I already gave the second copy away! :-)
Nice job Jim. And thanks for following up so quickly!
I too found the live dvd attached to a journal and I just assumed it was readily available for download. Unlike the live cd evidently, it comes overloaded with applications and so it is useful if only to just look at a lengthy menu of what is readily available. But I must say it runs surprisingly well for such a big beast.
I do like the way LXDE works and I think it warrants a closer look on its own merits. BTW, at least on my machine, when LXDE loaded it started up with compiz-fusion enabled and running, something I have not seen previously.
A kernel panic on installation certainly would put me off, especially if I were new to Linux! “Enough of that and back to a safe harbor!” Oh well, they do gently suggest we do not do that. Naughty lads we are!
@ masinick:
Hmmm…I wonder Brian if some might be irritated by the slimming down though? I mean the power users that might want all that stuff?
For me, the slimmer version is fine. And I suspect for a lot of people but some might not like it as maybe it removed some of the stuff they wanted or at least liked?
I’ll bet there are ways to get around that kernel panic – I wonder if it is using an initrd, for example, and if it is the right one, or if it uses only a completely static kernel?
I suspect that writing to Klaus Knopper could get you an answer – he has a periodic column these days in the Linux Pro Magazine, and lately, that mag has been one of my favorite sources for Linux information – the other one is Linux Format. Sad to say, these two mags blow away any native US publication (though Linux Pro Magazine actually has at least part ownership in the US – Jim, you might want to see if you can write for them).
@ Bill Julian:
Bill you are very welcome, glad you liked the review. I am going to try to make requests a priority though sometimes it’s hard as I can probably only get 1 – 2 reviews done per week and there’s a lot of stuff I’d like to get to and also fun stuff coming out all the time.
But I promise I will try.
Yeah, LXDE is a pretty good substitute for KDE. Especially since KDE decided to go off the deep end in version 4.
@ masinick:
Good suggestion, thanks Brian.
With the review of KNOPPIX, Crunchbang, and potentially a few others in the wing, I would find it helpful to compare and contrast these different approaches, not so much to say, “I like this one best”, but to articulate where each one does its best. I still consider KNOPPIX one of the best as a rescue and recover Live CD, even though that isn’t, by any means, its only use. Crunchbang seems to be useful as a pretty fast, light alternative to a desktop system – I’d REALLY like to see it compared to antiX when antiX M8.2 comes out. Then there is elive, which I’ve suggested as an alternative to be reviewed. I think it compares reasonably well to the others, and fits in well for someone looking for a different approach from the typical desktop in a live CD.
What do you think? Could a comparison be in the works?
Brian, I think that you have to pay to download elive don’t you? I suppose I could try to get a review copy but I’m not sure if they would give me one.
Remind me when antiX comes out and I’ll take a look.