LiveCDs
From Grokdoc
LiveCDs are a recent phenomonon. They are bootable CDs with a live Linux installation on them. This allows you to put a CD in your computer, and boot right into Linux without having to install it.
Since there are many Linux distributions, this is a trouble free way of trying them all quickly and seeing what you like. When you have picked one, you can then install Linux on your hard drive and speed it up considerably. (Running off a CDROM is pretty slow)
Live CDs are availible for most distributions:
- Suse
- Slackware (Slax)
- Knoppix - the original based on Debian
- Gnoppix
- Mandrake move - Focused on newbies. The menus targeted to newbies who want to navigate, write a mail, burn a cd, hear some music
- Mepis Another Debian/KDE based distribution.
Here is a review of 5 Live CDs
Here is more information on live CDs
Here BitTorrent trackers are a bunch of Live Linux CDs setup with QEMU, so they autorun under Windows as well. The result is like Warty for Windows . The ones with Linux 2.4 kernels perform better than the ones with Linux 2.6 kernels, but everything runs. Animated 'xsnow' GamesKnoppix included. "Free Linux with every Windows" ! You may need to register at LinuxTracker to use the torrents, but registration is free and anonymous. Instructions on building these dual-purpose CDs are at Office for Free Software in Education and Teaching
