Knoppix 3.8 at CeBIT w/ Kernel 2.6, FF, and More

clsc writes "The German tech news site Heise Online reports that Knoppix 3.8 is being presented at CeBIT (Hall 9, Stand C39). Knoppix 3.8 has kernel 2.6 as default, KDE 3.3.2, OpenOffice 1.1.4, as well as... Firefox 1.0 and Thunderbird 1.0. There's also a really neato new thing involving unionfs . It seems to imply that you can change most anything on the running system, even as it is running from CD - and changes can be stored too (even on NTFS)."

Re:write to its own disk?

[ErichTheWebGuy]

Or maybe with multi-session CDs, assuming that there is enough room on the CD? Programs could be loaded with the changes you have made, say, to config files... Doesn't seem impossible, and probably more reliable than a CD-RW...

Knoppix has come full circle

[Gopal.V]

Back when knoppix came out - it was a curiousity. Mainly because most systems needed hours of configurations to get it working "the way I want it". Small things like hooking up a "fetchmail" before "postfix flush" or putting both into the if-up scripts. Morphix was the first step towards that (eg if you want to browse securely from a cyber-cafe - without any keyloggers peeking).

Now with lots of machines with 512 Mb and greater RAM, a LiveCD doesn't sound that bad. This unionfs thing clinches it - but the catch is still that if you change your machine, all this is lost. All that said, LiveCDs are here to stay (I think LiveDVDs might be just around the corner ..)

Re:Plan 9 has had this feature for a long time

[Mad Merlin]

Would you prefer to see these good ideas merely ignored also?

Re:Knoppix is really good

[zarkzervo]

I like to take it with me to the computer store to try out on the various laptops I am considering buying.

"Sir!. I want you to leave the store. Or else I'll have to call the police. Your |\/|4D h4x0R 5k1Lz have no place here."

But seriously. I believe you have to be prepared to use about 30 minutes to explain to the clerk what you are trying to do. Too many have not heard about Linux (and even fewer have heard about Knoppix) and think you are damaging the setup of the computers.

Re:write to its own disk?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? Flash is cheap.

And really, unless you're dealing with old PCs that don't have USB, why not just stick the entire distro on a USB flash drive?

Re:Knoppix is really good

[ettlz]

If they won't let you try a Linux bootable CD, then don't bother with them. They can't be a very good store. I bought my notebook at a department store whose staff were more than willing for me to go through display machines seeing which ones booted the Red Hat 9 installer. They made me feel like they wanted me to spend money there.

Re:Bullshit!

[psyon1]

Why does it matter if a person installs a trojan? Any good store should reimage the system before its sold if it was a demo, and I doubt your customers are doing their banking from the demos.

Re:Knoppix can REALLY impress

[cerberusss]

Much smarter!! I'm going to put up a link to your site! BTW I don't know whether you thought of this, but this can potentially also squeeze some minutes out of a laptop battery: reading a bunch of files on one fell swoop will potentially avoid costly harddisk spinning up later.

Again, smart. Amazing what one can do with some simple shellscripting.