Knoppix 6.0.1
Desktop & Apps
In my review of Kubuntu I was somewhat critical of KDE and interestingly enough Knoppix has dumped KDE in this release and gone with Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment instead. I salute them for doing this because KDE 4 just did not float my boat at all in Kubuntu 9.04. The LXDE desktop is very snappy and easy to navigate. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of bloat and you can find things very easily for the most part. It’s not flashy or glitzy or whatever. But it is functional and performed well for me in VMWare.
Here’s some of what you’ll find for applications in Knoppix:
Gnome MPlayer
GIMP
XSane
Icedove Mail/News
Iceweasel Browser
Pidgin IM
Linphone
OpenOffice.org
VirtualBox
The selection of software is pretty sparse in Knoppix. Bear in mind though that this review is based on the CD version of Knoppix and not the DVD. The DVD version (which I could not seem to find available for 6.0.1) apparently contains significantly more software. You can also find much more software by using Synaptic. I updated the included repositories without a problem and found plenty of stuff to download.
If you don’t see an application that you want as you browse through software categories in Synaptic, be sure to try a search for it. I did not see Abiword listed under word processing but I searched for it and, sure enough, found it. Not sure why it wasn’t listed under word processing but it was still available.
(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.