Linux trial
Posted on August 05, 2002 @ 14:12 in General
Knoppix is a full Linux distribution, with lots of software and automatic hardware detection, that comes on a single, bootable cd-rom. It runs completely off of the cd and requires no installation whatsoever. I've tried it out and I'm very impressed!
I complained the other day about Microsoft releasing the latest Service Pack for Windows 2000 with an end user license agreement that gives them the right to check up and install or remove software on your computer without any further notification or consent on your part. (Slashdot and The Register report on it too.) I also said that I was seriously thinking about running Linux on my next computer, but that I needed a spare computer to experiment with it. Not so with Knoppix! Because it runs completely off of the cd you don't have to install anything. If your computer can boot from a cd (or if you make a boot floppy) you can boot straight into Linux, try out all the software and the KDE 3 desktop and when you're done, just log out and reboot into Windows.
I read about the Knoppix 'live-on-a-cd' Linux distribution on Slashdot (where else?) and decided to download the ISO cd-image. If you don't have a fast connection, you can also order the cd-rom. I burned the cd, set my BIOS to boot from the cd-rom drive and rebooted. Knoppix ran straight through the whole bootprocedure in one go on my AMD Duron 600 on an ABit KT7-Raid motherboard with 256MB RAM and Voodoo3 video card, and presented me with the KDE 3 desktop. It took only slightly longer to boot from the cd-rom than it takes Windows 2000 to boot from the harddisk. Graphics worked just fine, the sound card (Soundblaster 128) worked, the USB peripherals were recognized and functional, both my network cards worked and I immediately had internet-access through my local area network. Amazing!
I tried out the Knoppix cd-rom on my computer at work this morning, a Dell Optiplex GX110 (Pentium 3 667MHz, 128MB RAM, probably Intel i810 chipset with integrated sound and graphics). Interestingly enough the BIOS was not password protected, so I didn't have to make a separate bootfloppy and I simply set it to boot from cd-rom first. Immediately the bootprocedure halted with the message "You passed an undefined mode number" and offered me to either set a display mode by hand or just to continue by hitting the spacebar. I hit the spacebar and after that it was the same smooth experience as on my computer at home. Knoppix booted straight to the KDE 3 desktop, sound, graphics, internet-access (through the university LAN), everything just worked. I'm impressed.
A few niggles: the mouse scroll button on both systems didn't work; I wasn't able to find out how to change the screen resolution and refresh rates (and I _did_ poke around in the preferences quite a bit); gawd! text looks totally awful on screen and the provided fonts are not up to par with Windows (hopefully this is something that can be changed from the defaults Knoppix provides).
Knoppix automatically mounted the NTFS formatted harddisks of my computer at home as well as at work, which gave me instant access to all my data. Opening one of your MS Office files is as simple as double clicking it, because OpenOffice is included on the Knoppix cd-rom. The OpenOffice suite of office applications had already convinced me that it was more than adequate for my needs (I'm writing a PhD, so I guess that unless you're using some very specific MS Office tools, it'll be good enough for 80 or 90 percent of the people out there). Again, I'm impressed by the sheer quality of the experience.
So, what's next for me? I can't go on booting the same static Linux installation from cd-rom if I really want to put it to work, can I? Well, since I bought a second harddisk only weeks ago, I think I'm going to try to set up a dual boot system. Reading through a couple of tutorials, it doesn't seem too difficult to do and besides, I have plenty diskspace now. So, next is deciding what Linux distribution to get.
The only thing that bugs me is that I have years of experience in setting up a fairly stable and fairly secure system using Windows and now I have to go through the whole learning process again. And I just know that it won't be for quite a while before I feel safe and somewhat knowledgable on a Linux system. It's also very annoying that I should go through all that trouble (although, I enjoy the challange on a certain level) while I simply want to get my work done. But that's something I feel I can only blame Microsoft for. Whatever you think about their monopolistic practices, you still had a choice of whether or not to download/purchase and run a different browser, a different media-player or even a different office suite, but with claiming root/administrator rights on MY computer in the EULA, Microsoft finally went over the line for me.
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lkj
Posted by Petar Peric on September 30, 2002 @ 07:19
In the knoppix cheatcodes text file (a copy should be on your CD) it says that at the boot prompt, enter "knoppix wheelmouse" to get the wheelmouse working.
Posted by Brian on November 20, 2002 @ 06:01
I'd say Debian. Knoppix is based on it, if I remember it correctly. And though it is said to be 'harder' than Mandrake or comparable distro's, there are always Libranet and Xandros if you want to take the easy way.
I'm not an expert, I've just been browsing around websites and fora during the last couple of weeks thinking about the same thing, setting up a dual boot system. Debian is my no 1 choice at the moment. Still have to find the time to have a go at it, though...
Posted by roel on November 26, 2002 @ 15:27
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