What do you use live CDs for?

[Gomer_X]

Last night's show with all the discussion of Archie Linux got me thinking about live distros. When I first heard of Linux live CDs, I didn't see the point. Now I have at least a dozen, and often have one with me. It lets me take Linux with me, demonstrate it to other people, and they're just darn cool.

[mrben]

I would've like to vote for more than one - I give a fair few away, but mostly it's so that I have access to Linux on other machines, either just to have Linux, or, more often, to be able to perform diagnostics on a dead Windows box.

[Karl]

I ussually use livecds for for fixing systems that won't boot.

[bosshoff]

Yeah, I am with Karl on this one. You should make that a vote choice, because I would think that a lot of people do that. Of course, I guess it does kind of fall into the category of using it as an escape from windoze, as these are so often the boxes that are in need of such desperate measures.

I love how, when I go over to a friend's house and pop in a live cd, they exclaim "wow, it's running way faster now." Yep, that's because it doesn't have all that windoze bloat. I don't even go into the fact that the OS is running completely on RAM.

[Gomer_X]

I admit that "Maintenance: To fix broken systems" would be an excellent voting choice. Unfortunately I can't edit the choices once the poll has been submitted.

The fact that people came up with good choices that I didn't think of, though, proves the usefulness of the live CD (or that the community in general is just smarter than me).

[CptnObvious999]

when people ask me what linux is I say a free, fast, and secure operating system and hand them the latest knoppix. I also use it for fixing broken systems and cause I can't live without it. I love playing some of those linux games. I have downloaded PHLAK but I havn't done anything destructive yet.

[Ryochan7]

I use live CDs to fix broken systems and as an easier route for installing Gentoo.

[tgvf5]

I use them to have LINUX with me everywhere I go. I enjoy using my thumbdrive which saves settings and allows me to have my .img file work for me. I use it most often to share with folks with NEWER pcs so they can experience LINUX first hand without an install. I also like to pop them in at work and see the expression of folks when things don't come up as they expect when powering up their pcs

[no1important]

I like using it where I go and to test run new distro's. I run Kanotix but use Ubuntu live cd now and then for a change. I also take my Kanotix and Ubuntu to friends and family so they can see what the "fuss" (linux) is all about and I try to convert them to a more stable, safer o/s than what microsoft is.

[jamathis]

I use them for a few things. 1)To have a Linux distro with me when I may not be near a PC of my own. Coupled with a thumbdrive, a LiveCD is great. 2)To give away to people that may have never used Linux, so they can check it out. 3)To fix Windows machines (although, the only real way to fix a Windows machine is to install Linux).

[Mortuis]

I have been using them recently to determine the amount of work that will be necessary to use linux with my hardware. I'm new to the game and want to start with the least hair-pulling possable.

[Gomer_X]

I have been using them recently to determine the amount of work that will be necessary to use linux with my hardware. I'm new to the game and want to start with the least hair-pulling possable.

That's a definite advantage of the live CD. Back when I started you had to:

• 1. Back up your Windows System
  2. Repartition the hard drive (fun with fdisk!)
  3. Reinstall Windows
  4. Install Linux
  5. Hope it all works!

If you installed Linux first, the Windows install would wipe out the master boot record, and you'd have to start over (or try to figure out how to reinstall LILO from a boot floppy). Not many new users are comfortable with paritioning a drive using fdisk, and Partiton Magic can break your entire system if you're not careful. On top of that Linux installs weren't all that easy, and the system you wound up with still needed lots of configuration to be useful.

These are definitely better days to get started on Linux.

[Mortuis]

My big stumbling block is internet access. I had some success with SuSE 9.1 last year, it was the only distrobution that would recognise my 802.11<b>a</b> wireless card. My feeling is that as long as I have internet access with a computer, any problem can eventually be solved.

[Gomer_X]

Wireless is still a big problem. I don't use it, but the guys have talked about it on the show a bit. There are ways to deal with it.

Personally I trust my nice, old-school, nearly un-hackable ethernet cable.

[spiffytech]

I use Linux live CDs on my work laptop. It has XP on it, and I can't install Linux on it. However, Linux is faster and more reliable than XP for me, and I like to use it at school. I usually use knoppix because it supports my wi-fi out of the box. However, I have not yet found a liveCD that will allow me to shut and reopen the screen on my laptop without having to reboot.

One other problem with liveCDs with me is their support for USB drives is a bit flakey, which can lead to problems when I need to print something out.