JStrider.Org

There are a few new LiveCD’s from major builds, fresh this week, that you will want to check out. As with most things I mention here, both of these are for the x86 architecture, meaning boxes that normally run Windows when you bring them home from the store.

First, OpenSuse Live 10.3 gives you the full Suse experience without risking your hard drive or existing OS. And for the first time, it includes an installer so you can make it permanent without having to download and burn a separate ISO file. It comes with a choice between the Gnome or KDE desktop; if you don’t already have a favorite, get them both and see which one works better for you.

The other one is the first look at the OpenSolaris Preview build. Again, it comes with an installer if you like the LiveCD, but this one only boots to the Gnome desktop. It more than makes up for that lack of desktop choices by including a Constructor package you can compile and run. So you can burn it to a hard drive, add or subtract software packages, wallpaper and screen savers, and configure and set up scripts and actions, then create your very own LiveCD version to take with you or give away.

Why should Boot-from-CD/DVD be a useful thing? There are a lot of answers to this, like experimenting with new OS versions without risking your current install, or trying out new software you otherwise would have no access to. Bottom line for me, though, is it allows you to create an environment which exactly matches your web server for your site, then trying different things on it. OK, I admit the other other reason is to create any environment you find useful in any computer you walk up to, but that is already a given for this topic.

The basics of doing this involve separating your content from your server (separating content from presentation is a different project, which lots of web sites cover). As an example, let’s say you have a Media Server, and you want to test out different multimedia files before you upload and link them, to make sure they work the way you expect.

Dyne-Bolic is a great Live-CD for this purpose, so we will use it for our example. You burn the latest version to CD, then copy the Dyne directory to your hard drive so you can install any updates you need to there. You toggle the Media Content directory to your Hard Drive Media directory or Memory Stick docking point. Then you play your media, from that directory; you now have a server clone running locally, if anything doesn’t work you should see the problems and be able to fix them before you go public with the file. I think that’s useful, don’t you?

LiveCD’s (or DVDs for the more ambitious) can be built to focus in on any project you might want to create. But the most basic is also the most widely useful: the desktop. This is a Distro that has a good, all-around environment for the everyday user. It recreates, on a CD or DVD that you can boot from, an entire operating system and suite of software that anyone can use to get any task done. It does no one thing particularly well, but most people will find themselves right at home there, and be able to accomplish all the normal stuff they do every day.

The grand-daddy of these is Knoppix, the oldest LiveCD build that would boot and run from almost any computer you put it in to (if you want to grab the latest version for yourself, visit the Download Site Collection). There were other LiveCD builds before this, but they only ran on specific machines, or under specific circumstances. This one didn’t care. It would boot and run, and leave the driving to you; office box, game server, internet tool… it didn’t care. Who did care? The folks who wanted their own Boot-from-CD project to run anywhere and everywhere. A few of them include Kanotix, an early project that showed a lot of promise, but hasn’t been updated lately. Another was Sidux, from some folks that split off from the Kanotix project. Still another is ELive, dedicated to spreading the Enlightenment desktop to all and sundry. Any of these will give you a complete operating system, with all the regular software you could ever want. The average boot-from-CD disk holds around 2 Gig of software, when you factor in compression. That’s a lot of programs!

This URL has been down for longer than I was expecting, so it’s time to start fresh. The purpose of this site is simple; to let people know about free operating systems that boot off of CDs or DVDs, and live in RAM. That means you can try them out without risking the system currently installed in your computer, and without changing it in any way. When you are done trying out the OS and software on the bootable disk, you remove it from your computer, and everything is just like you left it when you next start the machine.

There are many other advantages, and many reasons to keep such disks handy. With them, you can drop a disk into any computer you walk up to, and instantly have all the software you want for a given task, in an environment you already know. You can also use them to recover and repair a computer that can not boot by itself any more, even if it has a different operating system (including Windows and MAC). You can use them for the ultimate in online protection; even if you go to the wrong web page and it tries to infect you or turn your computer into a Spam Zombie, when you turn the computer off, the infection evaporates (along with the operating system) from your RAM, never to bother you again. You can have different ones for different tasks, and turn your computer into a purpose-driven powerhouse for whatever you are working on at the moment, without filling your hard drive up with stuff you don’t use every day. And the list goes on; these reasons are just the tip of the iceberg. I hope you find this site useful, or at least amusing, and I hope you try a few of these out for yourself.