Definitely Puppy. It's a good way to, uh, test the water. Very easy to customize too...

PCOSlinux just about improves on 'Knoppix', though both are brilliant.

I would have to say Sabayon. It's based off of Gentoo, which, besides Arch, is the greatest distro ever! IMO. XGL/Compiz right out of the box with automatic GFX card detection. Plus, it has a BUNCH of included APPS and a great installer!

Live CD of the Year
 

As someone who was on the road and got the BSOD, a live Linux CD was the only thing that got me out of trouble (It was Knoppix 3.2). Since then, I evaluate Live CD's carefully, the sole criteria being to be able to boot up and get on the net with mail etc.

Allowing for the fact that I am using a laptop, many of the live CD's are a total failure - hanging up, kernel panic, freezing etc. This list includes anything Slackware and Gentoo based, including Sabayon. Even some Debian based distros - Dreamlinux for one -just doesn't work.

What does qualify
Knoppix, PCLinuxOS, Mepis (although as the release numbers increase so does the problems), although even the "qualifyers" now seem to forget PCMCIA support.

I'll stick to last years live CD's thanks - PCLinuxOS 9 and Knoppix 4!

Puppy is amazing.

Maybe next year we'll have more entries like : Freesbie (The freebsd live cd), Pardus, and more.

Could we make categories like:
knoppix and derivatives
puppy and derivatives

After trying 4 different distros, I finally found one that recognizes my printer and gives me a fully functioning system - PCLinuxOS 0.93. Everything else in this distro works perfectly, so it gets my vote.

How linux provide better security than any other os, briefly tell me the security features associated with Linux

Have a look on this site.

damnsmalllinux for me
it never failed me

Knoppix / GParted for trouble shooting...
STD Linux for fun...
Fedora for everything else...

Hey great link! some good reading there, thanks.

Puppy for me
 

Its the little Steam Engine that could. I like how easy it is to create customized versions of Puppy. It keeps getting better all the time. I still haven't installed it on my hard drive because saving back to the disc works just great(o.k. I lied somewhat. I do use the hard drive for swap and configuration storage - but no full blown install). Puppy is small, fast, and customizable. For those of you who like a little more eyecandy or find their desktop enviroment lacking try Muppy or Mean Puppy. Best way to Users Remasters is too checkout the Announce page in the forums or do a search for a particular Remaster. I believe the Main Website has a section that list some of the more Popular Remastered Puppies.

For Live I like Puppy, for desk I like MEPIS
 

Puppy for fast Live CD, MEPIS for Live that I intend to actually install to the hard drive.

Honorable mention: I really like the recent FreeSBIE 2.0 from the FreeBSD camp, too!

yup , have just read about the latest live bsd ... and to think that bsd finally does hollywood , maybe i will give it a try ... ^_^


.

I vote Puppy. It's by far the quickest live cd I've used.

The NetBSD Live CD released in Nov was pretty good too.

I liked Kanotix so much I installed it on my HD.

I'd say SimplyMepis and PCLinuxOS because they're multimedia ready.

When my computer's off coughnevercough and I want to look up something online real quick instead of booting a more bloated distro, I use Puppy Linux or a Kiosk Cd (browser only live distro). Check out LiveKiosk for instance.

The Fedora liveCD, while I like Fedora, is real slow on my system.

Knoppix. I haven't tried Ubuntu since they started supporting multi processors.

Where is ZenWalk????

knoppix IS THE REAL & ORIGINAL ( wikipedia ) & BEST live 'distro'. Many common users ( most of them used to windows ) afraid to switch to linux are USING linux because of Knoppix. And the new 5.1.1 eye candy with beryl n emerald is really cool man !

knoppix is the ORIGINAL & BEST live distro. Its the best choice for common peole n newbiews to start with / swith to linux. And the new 5.1.1 eye-candy with beryl n emerald is just cool man

Surely Knoppix LiveDVD is the best you can get?

DamnVulnerableLinux as it contains a lot of security apps using DamnSmall as a base, so not listed makes DamnSmall my choice.

Live Distribution of the Year
 

The same as my favorite installed distro, Puppy.

PCLinuxOS is my favorite Live Distribution and my favorite installed distribution as well. I have used Knoppix, Kanotix, Mepis, Vector, Gentoo, Ubuntu, DyneBolic, DreamLinux, and other live distributions, but PCLinuxOs has worked the best for me. It recognizes all my hardware and internet service; has a great Repository of easy to install programs with full dependencies added as well; a constant update of programs; and easy hard disk installation.

Puppy of course, because it's small and powerful. Plus the people on the forums rock!

The MEPIS, ma'am, Simply the MEPIS
 

(W/ apologies to Jack Webb).

Now there is no way I have tried all the candidates; but of the ones that I have, SimplyMEPIS is the only that is equally a live CD & the install media.

I am especially disappointed in the current Ubuntu DVD's in my possession (from review books) because they could have incredibly multi-purpose: Live, Install, & Repair spanning all 4(?) Canonical flavors: Ubuntu itself, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, & Edubuntu. Surely there is enough overlap in the base software required that few packages would have had to be sacrificed to include the stuff that is unique to each flavor or purpose -- sheesh! a DVD holds almost 7 CD's worth of data.

I deal a lot w/ potential converts & SimplyMEPIS is ideal for me to hand out: easy to run live & easy to install when the time comes. It also has distro specific (to itself) repair tools unlike any I have seen elsewhere.

DSL for live distro, always carry a disc in case I need to connect.

I went with BeafantIX being that the group made great strides in producing a final LiveCD that blazes even on older hardware. Most LCDs stutter and groan when you try to make use of them. BFX runs almost as smooth as installing it.

if knoppix can't detect it what's the chance of the others? hmm

I couldn't even count how many times Knoppix has saved my job.

Knoppix, Ubuntu (christmas or Ultimate edition), Mandriva One are real good live distros
DSL, puppy are the best on small or aged hardware
Sabayon linux is the real *best* live distro I've seen last year, and I'm using its 32 as well as 64-bit releases for the fun, the amazing graphics as well as for the enormous amount of +++various software it gives to the user in a couple of minutes (GUI as well as console apps like mdadm, etc, etc.) :D

I seldom use live distros and therefore have only tried six (two are not listed as choices in the poll): SimplyMEPIS, PCLinuxOS, Puppy, Mandriva One, Mandriva Move, and Linspire Live. All of them except Puppy are comparatively large and slow. That is why Puppy gets my vote. It gets the job done and doesn't kill off your laptop battery by constantly accessing the CD. I also understand that when booting from USB (something I have not yet tried), Puppy minimizes writes, enhancing USB key life.

I kinda like SLAX to be honest. I have the Kill Bill version and it's fun to use. :)

gNewSense (Ubuntu without the Ubuntu).

elive?
 

Am I the only person on the planet running elive? Its an awesome live distro!

It'd be helpful if people could say a little bit about how a distro is good, what features do they find good.

VectorLinux has two LiveCD series: the Standard Live (a live version of the Standard distribution) and Beryl Live, for those who want eye candy in their LiveCDs....

Not quite...
BeatrIX is in a state of hiatus, due to personal reasons of the guy behind it. BeaFanatIX release 1 was a remaster and bugfix of BeatrIX, where as BeaFanatIX 2006.2 a.k.a BFX2 is distribution in it's own right.

How do you do that?

Sounds like the old Maine joke about "the sassage" (sausage):

• Looks good,
• smells good,
• but when ya clean it, ther ain't much left.

why..
 

Well, someone suggested that we actually tell why we like our live distro..
I really like elive because of the speed at which the cd runs, and the blazing speed once its installed. True, it can't compete with the likes of DSL or puppy, but most can't. It looks amazing as far as the live cds go, and I personally just prefer the way that the Enlightenment DR17 window manager works. It also comes with a good selection of software out of the box, including Firefox/Thunderbird, Gaim, XChat, Gimp, Blender, Kino, Cinererlla, AcidRip, AbiWord, Gnumeric, and even some emulaters such as VMware, QEMU, ZSNES and DosBox. It even is so bold as to have an option on the menu to load the live cd in QEMU. pretty cool, to be running a live cd fast enough to boot up a QEMU image too...
Also, most things just work out of the box, like WMA, MP3, DVD etc...
its just an all around nice live cd....
PS its debian, so you get the easy apt-get stuff, and its got pretty darn good hardware detection....honestly there's not much I can criticize about this one...

puppy for me
 

puppy, hands down, is the live distro i use. although i also seem to like simplymepis(live), ubuntu(live) and gentoo(live) those distros are mainly used as installed distros where as puppy is almost entirely live.

Good choices!
 

I like your choices. Strictly as a Live CD (only), Puppy is definitely hard to beat. When using a Live CD as the basis for installing a desktop system, then I really like SimplyMEPIS.

When I use a Live CD to check out hardware or perform maintenance, then I really like Knoppix, the Swiss Army Knife of Live CDs!

The ones you mentioned are also good, and there are scads of other ones that are really good as well... of course, the software on which they are based is also good, and really starting to mature nicely!

Pclos
 

Without a doubt, IMHO the easiest install-great graphics-one of the best forums in the Linux world (LQ.org is up there). I find that this distro is perfect to show just what Linux is about, what it can do and where it can go. Hands down better than Vista in all ways, not to mention the price. Least I add that I have given $$ support. And I am CHEAP.

DamnSmall, because it's.. well.. small ^^

I really like Wolvix Cub,
quite a good little setup
from the Norwegians.

Slax - Yellow Dog Linux v5.0
 

Its Slax!

on my Apple PowerBook G4 667 I got Yellow Dog Linux v5.0.

l

It was hard but Knoppix got my vote, even that there are few other good live distribution it's still the best.

Knoppix UBER ALLES!!!!!
Though I would have to say that Puppy is my favorite for lightweight old hardware . .
Knoppix consistently has the latest greatest version of the real important free software more than any other distribution of Linux I ever knew:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=knoppix

Knopppix is the best Microsoft withdrawal cure.

Puppy is awesome if you ever become shit out of luck and you want to get your basic computing activities going on again with an old charity computer. Puppy is also good if you or if you need a sidekick old junker machine while the main big beast is busy. . . . . , but Puppy doesn't have nearly the diverse multimedia playing options that the Knoppix DVD has.