Current king of the Live distros?

By LOC
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Grand Master

LOC Veteran

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I haven't tried any live DVD's in awhile and I thought now would be a good time to ask which is the top of the heap or which has the best offerings app wise, if there is a gamers distro etc.

The last one I used was Sabayonlinux, and a Suse live dvd. :)

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Grand Master

markwolfe Veteran

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Knoppix, maybe? The grand-daddy of LiveCDs. :yes:

For a beginner like myself, Should I go with some Live CD first before actually installing the whole thing into my computer?

:hmmm:

I would like to install it under something like virtual pc... Would it be good?

Any other suggestion?

LiveCDs are great way to "test drive" Linux. Using a VirtualPC is not very good. You suffer a big performance hit, and any problems you run into, you just can't be sure if it is your VPC setup or Linux config (for example, MSVPC has problems with a specific color depth that most Linuxes use as default).

I would recommend a "wubi" type of install that doesn't alter your partitioning, if you think you might be removing Linux soon. I think that Ubuntu is pretty much the distro for wubi, as I haven't heard of others that use it extensively.

Proficient

Zickar

Posted
Posted
For a beginner like myself, Should I go with some Live CD first before actually installing the whole thing into my computer?

:hmmm:

I would like to install it under something like virtual pc... Would it be good?

Any other suggestion?

Trust me, you should really make sure what you're doing or you'll end up deleting windows like my case ... I've been fiddling around with Xubuntu via a live CD without installing it and when I decided to do it I misunderstood the settings for partitions and deleted windows, besides it took me some time to figure out basic stuff like connecting to the internet and how to change display settings and stuff like that so make sure you are really comfortable with the system before you make the switch ... I hear a lot of good stuff about Virtual Box although I never tried it but maybe you can give it a look

Grand Master

Lechio

Posted
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Knoppix Live DVD is one of the most complete ones in the Live DVD distro department (it's currently in need of an update as it is almost a year old).

if there is a gamers distro etc

A few: http://www.livecdlist.com/?pick=All&showonly=gaming

There's some live CD's that their only function is to run a specific game, nothing more.

But if you are referring to a distro that is optimized for gaming, would suggest you to install the distro of your choice and then make those optimizations by yourself.

Grand Master

Lechio

Posted
Posted
Knoppix hasn't been updated in ages

Nonsense.

The latest Knoppix DVD (5.3.1) is dated from 2008-03-26. It may be "ages" for some who, for instance, would like to install it on the computer and have the latest KDE version. But not for live use as you tried to put it.

It was king but now everyone and their grandmother releases a live CD.

True, there are allot of Live distros out there, but Knoppix is still the most complete one when it comes to the amount of packages that ship with it, and the options it provides for live use. Just look at Distrowatch and notice what other Live distros (with that I don't mean distros that allow a live trial of the OS before installing) are in the top spots.

Knoppix is the most complete distro for live use available to date.

Grand Master

Lechio

Posted
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Ok then... I'll try out knoppix.

I am sure I wont be comfortable with new environment.

But decide to give it a try...

Knoppix serves many tasks as a Live DVD. One of those tasks would be making people familiar with a "UNIX" environment, KDE. It has GNOME too and bunch of other environments, but KDE is default.

If you are a new user that comes from Windows, KDE can look and feel very intuitive.

Now, what, in my opinion, would be the best choice for you is to try the Live CD from the distro you are planning on istalling after. If you plan to install Ubuntu, go with that. Ubuntu uses GNOME as its desktop, it's a better choice if you plan to go the Ubuntu way. There's also Kubuntu which provides KDE as its desktop.

Grand Master

LOC Veteran

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I installed Wubi (and the KDE version of Ubuntu) and I must say, much better than the last time I tried out any Linux distro. Sadly, my soundcard isn't recognized yet again (An X-Fi, which I know is supported under linux now) and I'm having trouble getting it to work. But that's ok. The system seems fast and smooth, and looks like it has been optimized much better.

Grand Master

Lechio

Posted
Posted
great find man, that's a good heads up! way to keep a keen look out

Yeah well, the Creative Labs one is dated from "April 16, 2008". So it's not a very "keen look out".

There should already be support for that board from ALSA, don't know about that, just suggesting some options.

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