I have just come across an interesting new distro for people who may want to just dabble with Linux first or have something quick and easy to look at or use on a different PC >

Its Called Knoppix and the latest version is 3.1

You can get it (download) for free from

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/sources/

Based on Debian (I think) it boots from CD and auto detects most hardware - thus far I have tried it on 3 different setups including a Laptop

It has all the usual suspects including Gnome and KDE3
and even manages to load and run Open Office

How it does all this I don't know - It Doesn't install anything but expands on the fly

All you need is a PC (486 or better) which can boot from CD and about 82 mb ram (if you want graphics)

Cool

Hmmmm interesting....opening the page now

Ok i opened it, its the sources etc..
went to their home page, and its GERMAN

might have to translate it with altavista....

http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr - Altavista translator
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/ - Distrobution homepage

Garry

Silly me, on the homepage theres a link to its english version
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
deleting post before this

Garry

Arrrgh I jumped the gun with the site - go to

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
and click on the english flag if its not already in english - then at the bottom click on the download from one of the mirrors ..

Don't worry the program itself is in english !

Very interesting. I am using KNOPPIX3.1 to surf the web and to add this post. I was surprised at how well it autodetected and setup things up. Runs off the CD and uncompresses on the fly. Not to sluggish for doing that. Just a little when you load an app and it pulls it from the CD.

I am running an AMD Duron 800mhz
128mb of RAM
GeForce 4 MX420
External U.S. Robotics v90 Modem
Onboard VC97 junk Audio

It had no problems with my video.
Deteced the sound.

Booted into KDE 3.0.3. Has alot of apps loaded.
Setup my Dialup Connection. No Broad Band at the house. : (
I am using Mozilla 1.1 to surf.
Has Open Office 1.0 (OO tends to load slow on an installed linux, even slower when uncompressing from CD. But, useable.
I'm Playing my MP3's off my SUSE partition using XMMS.
Chatting with Gaim.

Has pretty much all the major basic programs. I think I read you can customize it and add programs. I will need to do some reading to say for sure on that.

Cool Distro to check and see how a system will run linux and just to show off to your Windoze buddies how COOL linux really is. Will stick with my SUSE, but love trying out new Distros.

Anyone else tried it?

ddpicard

No no, don't delete it buddy! I had never seen the Altavista translator before, only heard about it. That's a link worth keeping up.

I added it to my favorites, and will post a link there from my website soon too. That's probably the second best tool I have ever seen! Thanks for the link!!!

Cool

btw...

I too am downloading and going to try it out. I have been looking for a few different things like this, and would like to have a larger group to get a good feel from. Thanks for the suggestion, and feedback.

Cool

Ok, tried it here at work. I have a Dell.

Video installed ok no problem there.

The Audio is AC97. Like I've seen alot with this Audio is it works on some but not on others. The auto detect that is. I set it up using the control center and all is good.

Network card is a 3Com so no prob there.

This is cool. Take your linux with you.

I save my changes to config to a floppy and all worked well on reboot.

That's all for now. Don't have time to play with it. I DO have to administer my network.

ddpicard

MasterC, so what did you think of the distro?

I have been playing around with it a little. Found out that you can install it to your harddrive to add and remove programs and change system settings and then remaster the cd.

As of yet I have not tried it. But, it is on my list of things to do. That would be awesome to customize it with the programs I use and be able to take with me. It already comes with alot of programs, some that I use like the KOrganizer. But to be able to add the others. COOL.

If you are interested the install script is located in:

/usr/local/bin/knx-kdinstall

be sure when you run it that you use the sudo command in front:

sudo knx-hdinstall

Don't know if anyone is interested but looks pretty cool to me.

ddpicard

Ok, I used the knx-hdinstall script.

Worked good. I partitioned my extra drive with a linux-swap and then a primary partition.

The script copied over all files setup passwords and gave the option to boot using Lilo or a floppy.

Now to play around with removing what I don't want and install the programs I do. Then to re-master the cd. That is the part I am not sure about but I have found some forums discussing it.

Should be interesting.

ddpicard

Let us know! I downloaded the disc, and haven't used it yet

I count count how many times I've done that.

Thank you for the good feedback, this is great news so far! I will give it a try very soon...

Cool

hmmm i haven't tried it lol, i downloaded i think like 80mb then stopped hahahha (56k modem)

Garry

Oh and i'm glad you like that translator MasterC, i loved it too, i fooled all my friends with it, thinking i could speak German etc, it's a fun tool and also for translating interesting sites like from Japan or something....i love checking out the Japanese Sony site...real good stuff....

Garry

Knoppix boots up w/ no troubles on my system. It detects almost everything and I'm up and running in no time w/ the hassle of installing anything. It's also portable, take it anywhere! Show people how easy and functional Linux can be