As the subject title says
When is a "Live CD " instead an "Installer CD" ? How to know?

I downloaded fluxbuntu-7.10-installer-i386.iso despite it says
that it is an installer cause the link to it says it is a "live cd"

I thought a live cd let you chose if you want to install or not?

Isn't that always the case? Does some programmers still name them
live cd when in practice they are only an installer cd?

How could one find out without actually doing installation?
I have no partitions on my hdd and I don't want any either.

Could someone confirm this is a live cd that let you test fluxbuntu
without installing it.

When it boot it gives no such option. all choices are about installing.

Have they linked to wrong mirror? Alaska was the one I dl from.
http://fluxbuntu.org/

Some live cd's offer you the possibility to install to HD - but that is just a convenience feature.
You can use them as a real linux system only with a cdrom-drive present - without installing anything.
A live cd with the option to install it permanently is still a live cd - one that makes it easy on you to install the system should you like it.

That being said: I don't know fluxbuntu - I'd guess it is a stripped down version of Ubuntu using fluxbox as a window manager.
Because of that it would be lighter on resources and can run on systems which would be too weak to handle the full Ubuntu.

Live CDs usually have a way to install from them - normally an "install" icon. If you accidentally load an install CD it will quickly become apparent. However, it won't simply automatically start installing without your input - so you can drop out of the install without damaging your system.

Thanks guys that is what one hope that they ask first
but just some weeks ago I did happen on a cd that actually
started to install maybe it thought me had said ok to it
by just starting it???

Itstarted to defrag to do resizing and installing and ctrl+alt+delete or backspace
did't stop it either so I had to do hard reboot for four seconds to force it to halt.

I should have written down the name of it and set a postit on my screen to remember.
I got so scared so I went straight to bed and forgot what it was. 02.55 in morning
so I was very tired and could have misunderstood something.

I don't trust this flux iso to be a live anymore.

could I not look into it with another linux open the iso and see what the
folders are? Don't they make it appearant if it is a live or a install?

Maybe easier to just skip it.

It should tell on the website you downloaded it from whether it's a live or install CD.

It is always obvious for those who are bright enough to read such text.

Test your ability here as I did.

http://wiki.fluxbuntu.org/index.php?title=Get

Now that could mean very many things.

1. That all of them are both live and install at same time but
says installer to not let the newbies feel stranded if they want
an installer and would not know that a live usually also means
that it allows you to chose install. At least very many allow this.

2. It could means that one have to look out for a special iso that
specify it is a live cd but I didn't find any such at any of the
mirrors. Maybe me failed to know how to find them?

3. it could mean they have had such live cds there but discontinued
due to some bug but forgot to tell that in that page?

can you find a live cd there cause the one I downloaded nowhere let
you chose to not install. Every option was about installing.


Since then I downloaded Myrinix Debian? Sudix? anyway that was a live
cd though. but it didn't say anything about that in the iso name
Myrinix-2007-08_4.dvd.iso unless the way dvd says it but that could
be because it is bigger than a cd can cope with. 1.6 Gb.

It lacked the permission to write to menu.lst and it lacked mplayer plugin. Maybe due to copyright thing.

Maybe one get writing permission as sudo or higher priv?

But I didn't know how to make me such user in that distro.

One secure way to test if an iso are a live or an installer that has no live option
is to test it in a "sandbox?" I used vbox that allowed me to start it safely and it
was as I feared. It started to do partitioning asking if I wanted to use the whole
hd or to split it up to dual booting and so on.

Sad that they say it is a live but only provide installer cds.

No need to fear - and two things:
it is a variant of:
They could have stated that they do not actually provide live-cd's.
They didn't.
Oh well...

But on download - the filename clearly indicates that it is an installer.
And the startup-menu says nothing about test-driving it - just install related things.

...the ability to read...and to keep an eye open...

They don't say it is a live-cd - they say they would offer both - but do not in reality.

Tell them that you have an issue with that.

There's a long list of live CDs here:

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

thanks that was helpful.