Originally Posted by yancek

It is one version, there are hundreds of different versions and you can get some info on this by clicking "Distro Reviews" on the right of this page and also by googling "distrowatch" and going to their web site.



They're not companies, they are referring to software packages for specific functions.



The Linux version number is the version of the Linux kernel being usedd, the gcc is its version and Knoppix is based on the Debian Linux OS and that is its release version.



Where? You are using a Live CD which isn't writable, or did I miss something?

The part about using Synaptic without a root passwrod is probably because Knoppix runs as root by default, usually when using Linux you need a root password to make system changes. Are you planning to install Linux to your hard drive? Knoppix is good and has its uses but isn't really designed to be installed permanently to a hard drive.

Originally Posted by saminbama

I am currently (while I type this) running a live CD version of KNOPPIX. Is that Linux?

Originally Posted by salasi

Knoppix is a Linux variant (distribution). There are many of these; essentially Linux is a kernel and you need much more than a kernel to have a system that is useful for, eg, desktop computing.

If you have a Live CD, you will have difficulty installing programs permanently as the live CD will not be writeable. You could install it to your hard disk, or you could select a distribution that is intended for hard disk installation.

I'm not totally sure what would happen if you had your distro on a writeable CD...you probably wouldn't enough room to install anything useful, anyway.



A collection of programs...anyway, the ones that you quote look like program names, rather than companies.

When I typed this command, I get this output:




it is a linux kernel, and the version is 2.6.32.6, and it was probably compiled by someone known to his computer as root...



..using that compiler...



...based on that version of debian..



...the kernel is symmetrical multicore processor-capable...



...and that was the date on which it was compiled....all of which seem irrelevant to





In principle, click on the thing that you want to add in synaptic, confirm that you want to do it and let it be done. However, using a live CD in Live CD mode, as mentioned earlier, the best outcome that I can see happening is that you have Flash until you reboot. OTOH, if this was a hard disk install, installing programs should just work. (I don't use either firefox or iceweasel, and there might be a wrinkle with getting Iceweasel to know that it should use flash, I'm not sure.)




For any live CD, there is a problem having a secret root password, unless you can somehow customise it at build time. If anyone, or more specifically potential miscreants can know the root password, insisting on the end user supplying the root password for administrative tasks is basically just an annoyance for the user, and you are being told that, somewhat obliquely.

If you are concerned about the security aspects of this, on the one hand, you do not have the extra protection that needing to know this extra piece of information before making system alterations could give. OTOH, if the problem has started because the CD is non-writeable for you, there is the protection given by the fact that it is not writeable
for malefactors too.



Substitute (or switch) User gives you the power of the user to whom you switch. Separating the really 'can destroy anything' power from the 'ordinary user' power is part of the security model used in most unix-like OSs.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Originally Posted by saminbama

can you bring it down another level; what do you mean "just works" what do you click on or access or open or navigate to?