Top Linux Live CD Distributions 2006

Michael J. Jordan, Linux Online Staff

May 11, 2006

Live CD distributions have always seemed to me to be the best way to increase Linux usage out there. The concept is simple: just download a set of packages that can be burned to a CD and then booted on a PC (or even a Mac, as we'll see). There is no need to install anything to the hard disk. You can 'try before you buy' or, as in the case of Linux, you 'don't buy'.

There are a lot of live CD distributions to choose from. If you visit our distributions page here and choose 'live cd' from the menu, you'll find the ones that we're keeping track of. Most of these are actually special purpose distributions. That means that the developers created them with the intention of meeting some special need of theirs. For example, many are versions of Linux that cater to people who speak a particular language. Some are based on the interests of the developers. For example, there is a live CD distribution that is designed by and aimed at people who play the game of 'go'. There are others that have been developed for people who create and record music. There is one for people who work with GIS maps. As you can see, there's quite a variety.

In this review, however, we'll be dealing with those that are aimed at the general public. We'll feature live CD distributions that, in this writer's opinion, offer the easiest way to show you the best that Linux has to offer.

Knoppix

Knoppix is the parent distribution of many of the other Linux live CD versions. The latest version (5.0) only comes in a DVD format. This, unfortunately, isn't going to be too practical for people who don't have a DVD drive. I know they are common now, but you don't usually see them on older machines. It's these older PCs that are more likely to be used to give Linux at try. For this review, I downloaded the last CD version, which was 4.0 and dates from September 2005. That's not really that old, but things in Linux do move pretty fast.

Any reference to live CD distributions of Linux starts with Knoppix. The reason for this is because it gives the user an excellent idea of what Linux is all about. It has a wide variety of applications and its hardware detection and support is excellent.

My test machine was an older IBM Thinkpad Laptop. It found all the hardware right away, including my PCMCIA wireless network card. By using the network setup tool, I had it hooked up to the network in about 30 seconds. It would have taken less time if I had a DHCP server on my home network.

The only complaint I have is that its not particularly stunning visually. Klaus Knopper and the other Knoppix developers have obviously gone for substance over style. But if you're looking for a distribution that will show you all that Linux has to offer, Knoppix is the one.

Knoppix can be found at: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Kanotix

Kanotix is essentially a nicer-looking Knoppix with somewhat better hardware detection and support. As a matter of fact, Kanotix's fame comes from its wide support of all sorts of hardware.

As with Knoppix, I tried Kanotix out on the same Thinkpad. All my hardware, including the wireless network card, was detected. Network setup was the same.

There is a version of Kanotix that's newer than the Knoppix I tried (Dec. 2005). So, for example, instead of Knoppix's OpenOffice 2.0 beta, you have the final 2.0 version here. There is an interesting difference worth noting in the package department, and that is the inclusion of the Klix system. Klix is the first item on the main menu. If you select it, it takes you to a web page where you click on an icon to install the program you want.

And, as I mentioned before, Kanotix is also nicer looking that Knoppix. That should make it much more attractive to newcomers.

Kanotix can be found at: http://kanotix.com/index.php?&newlang=eng

SimplyMEPIS

MEPIS is a Linux distribution from the one man development team of Warren Woodford of West Virginia. Like Knoppix and Kanotix, MEPIS is also based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. Recently, however, Mr. Woodford surprised the Linux community by changing MEPIS from being based solely on Debian to being based on the Ubuntu, the latest "hot" Linux distribution. SimplyMEPIS is the live CD version of Woodford's distribution. I decided to go bleeding edge and I tried a beta version of his upcoming SimplyMEPIS 6.0 with the new Ubuntu base. Just like others I have tried in the past, this version of SimplyMEPIS impresses, even in its 'beta' state.

Again, my test machine was the Thinkpad. It also recognized my PCMCIA wireless card. Then I went to the MEPIS Config OS Center and used the network configuration tool and, again, I quickly (and simply) set up my network connection.

Since it's beta, everything is brand-spanking new here. As its desktop, it uses KDE 3.5, in contrast to 3.4 in Knoppix and Kanotix. But like these two, it will give you a good selection of Linux applications to try. SimplyMEPIS is in no way minimalist like many other live CD distributions. It comes with everything an operating system needs: browser, email, office suite and many other programs. If you like what you see, there's an option to install it on your hard drive and make it your everyday operating system.

Warren Woodford makes the ISO images of the beta versions for a limited time, so if you want to try SimplyMEPIS, you'll need to get it within that time period. If you're not into beta testing, a stable version of SimplyMEPIS, along with other versions of MEPIS, is available for purchase from the MEPIS website

PCLinuxOS 'Minime'

PCLinuxOS differs from the others in that it doesn't have a Debian base. PCLinuxOS gets its genes from Mandrake.

One of the advantages of being a Mandrake-based system is that it uses the system configuration system known as HardDrake. This is an excellent tool and quite user friendly. Once again, using my Thinkpad, I set up my wireless networking pretty quickly using the tools in HardDrake.

Compared to Knoppix, MEPIS and Kanotix, there are fewer applications. That's probably why they gave it the name 'minime'. If you're happy with what you see, PSLinuxOS can also be installed onto your hard drive. Once installed, it should be easy to keep up-to-date. This is because, despite being an RPM distribution, it's configured to use apt-get, the Debian package management tool. PCLinuxOS is a nice looking distribution as well. The desktop is also based on KDE. The theme is appealing and the menu and toolbar fonts are smooth.

Though a bit light on the number of applications, PCLinuxOS is another live CD that I would recommend if you're thinking of giving Linux a try. You can find it at their website: http://www.pclinuxos.com

Slax

Slax, as the name implies, is based on Slackware. Slackware, like Debian, is one of the 'classic' Linux distributions. It enjoys wide developer support (that is to say, you can get packages for it fairly easily). Using the same Thinkpad once again, Slax detected my wireless PCMCIA card right away. Then I used the 'set ip address' utility in the 'Internet' section of the main menu. While this seemed to work correctly (it added my Thinkpad to the network and apparently updated the machine to use my ISP's DNS servers), I couldn't connect to the internet. The 'set ip address' did everything right except tell the system the gateway. I tried entering my home network's gateway's IP address over and over again, but upon inspection of the relevant configuration file, the tool had not added the gateway. I had to do it myself using the old fashioned method: the command line. The newcomer trying out Linux for the first time is probably not going to want to go through that.

Like PCLinuxOS, Slax is on the miminalist side when it comes to applications. But I can say that it's a nice looking system. The default KDE desktop theme looks great. In fact, it's the one I prefer when I install a new system. The fonts look great too. It's really too bad about the network problem. Slax would otherwise be another great way to try out Linux.

Slax can be found at: http://slax.linux-live.org

Ubuntu Live CD for PPC

A while back, one of my best friends gave me a G3 iBook. This gave me a good excuse to try out the only up-to-date live CD distribution for the PPC processor: Ubuntu. Ubuntu, brain child of South African internet entrepreneur and space tourist Mark Shuttleworth, is the most popular Linux distribution right now. Apart from being popular, Ubuntu is also very, very good, so I'm glad to be able to report to Mac users that you can try out Ubuntu painlessly by downloading Ubuntu Live CD for PPC. Just burn it to a disk (as a bootable image) and then press 'C' on the keyboard while you reboot your computer. Since Mac users' devotion to their platform is legendary, I can safely assure them that they don't need to worry. Nothing will be permanent.

Set up is fairly straight forward. Mac users will probably be put off by the text-mode setup process (if you've eve used a Mac or seen one in action, you'll understand why), getting your machine running Linux is really straight-forward. Just answer the questions and keep pressing enter. You'll be up and running fairly quickly. To prove it, here's a picture of my iBook running Ubuntu:

Ubuntu uses the GNOME desktop, which is somewhat more minimalist than KDE, used by the other live CD. I think the trade-off is worth it. However, if you absolutely must have more glitz, you can try out Kubuntu for PPC, which bases its desktop environment on KDE (hence the K in Kubuntu). I did give Kubuntu for PPC a whirl but found it a frustrating experience. It was almost impossible to set up networking and impossible to get sound running. This was strange, considering they should have the same base packages and kernel. With "traditional" Ubuntu, all of this was easy to set up and everything worked just fine.

Knowing quite a few Mac users, I don't expect them to give up OS X for Ubuntu. However, if you've got an older machine like my iBook and you want to set up a home web, mail or file server, Ubuntu might be what you're looking for. Using the apt-get system for package management, you can download and install Apache, Postfix and Samba painlessly. You can easily add MySQL and Perl or PHP to the mix.

Ubuntu Downloads: http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Some Final Observations

As I mentioned at the beginning, there are a large number of live CD distributions out there. Most of these, however, are special purpose distributions that are designed to do specific functions. The ones I featured here in this review I considered to be of interest to the general public. All in all, they do a fine job at showing a potential Linux user what the operating system looks like and how it operates.

Finally, I would like to say that I regret not being able to write about three potentially good ways of trying Linux. SuSE offers a live CD version but it is, like the latest version of Knoppix, only available on DVD. Mandiva (formerly Mandrake) also has a live CD version but this is only available for purchase. The third commercial offering, Linspire, whose live CD ISO image I eventually found after a long search, did not boot on any machine I tried it on.

Luckily, those curious about Linux still have the possibility of trying the live CD distributions I reviewed here without any great difficulty.

Michael J. Jordan is the webmaster of Linux Online. He can be reached at Michael.Jordan**AT**Linux.org