KNOPPIX 5 test and review

[Roger Johansson]

I just tested knoppix 5 in the same way that I tested mepis a few hours
ago.

Knoppix installed faster, and was a lot easier to use.
What took me two hours in mepis took me 15 minutes in knoppix.

I also wrote a text file and saved to a hard disk, to test an editor,
and saved my knoppix user settings to hard disk.

Negative sides common to both mepis and knoppix, I could not play
music, or could not find out how to set the sound card in the short
time I tested.

But I could surf the web with both, and a lot of other things too, of
course.

Conclusion, knoppix is a lot better, faster and easier to use as a
live-cd today.

Knoppix today feels like it is made to be used as a live-cd when I use
it as a live-cd, mepis feels like a demo of what it can do if installed
for real.

I have no idea how any of them would perform when installed for real on
a hard disk, but based on their performance as live-cd-s I would
certainly try knoppix first.
There seems to be an overall control of the knoppix project that is not
developed yet in the mepis group.

Knoppix seems to be targetting beginners or "lazy" people, like me,
much more than mepis.

 

[Mark Warner]

Knoppix today feels like it is made to be used as a live-cd when I use
it as a live-cd, mepis feels like a demo of what it can do if installed
for real.

That is *exactly* the case. Comparing the two is apples/oranges.

Knoppix is indeed superior in Live CD mode -- that's its purpose.

Install Knoppix to hard drive and you end up with a basic Debian
install. Install MEPIS, and you have a full featured distro.

 

[PaulFXH]

That is *exactly* the case. Comparing the two is apples/oranges.

Knoppix is indeed superior in Live CD mode -- that's its purpose.

Install Knoppix to hard drive and you end up with a basic Debian
install. Install MEPIS, and you have a full featured distro.

Hi
I tried Knoppix and Ubuntu LiveCDs last week and had a very similar
experience to Roger.
Knoppix loaded quickly and was relatively easy to use from CD.
Ubuntu was so slow (more than 1 hour to "boot" into a usable condition)
that many times I had thought it was in a terminal "hang".
Even when the desktop became available, there was little point in
trying anything unless you had nothing else to do for a few hours.
However, even though my printer is listed by Linux.com as being
"perfectly" compatible with Linux, I just couldn't get it to print from
Knoppix due to its refusal to load the appropriate drivers (even after
it had identified 4 of them).
Nevertheless, there are a lot of good things glimpsable here that I'm
going to have to try from a HD. A somewhat frustrating but nevertheless
tantalizing experience.

Paul

 

[Roger Johansson]

That is *exactly* the case. Comparing the two is apples/oranges.

Okay, I believe you.

Knoppix is indeed superior in Live CD mode -- that's its purpose.

If I had a lot more time I would try different linux versions for real,
but I was mainly looking for a live-cd to use as a reserve system in
case everything else fails.

And I wanted to try some of the more talked about linux versions too,
just to have an idea of at what stage the development is at.

Different operating systems can be seen as pyramids.
What you see first is the top of the pyramid, the user interface you
meet first.

Knoppix has a top of its pyramid which looks like a serious threat to
windows.
The Knoppix live-cd found hardware and installed itself quicker than
windows2000.

But if we want to do more complicated things, like installing new
programs, fixing problems, you mean that mepis has a more complete and
better organisation than knoppix which relies on the debian base, which
I guess is harder to work with than the mepis base.

The windows base is, of course a lot easier for me to handle, after
learning things about it for 20 years as it has developed.

But the difference is getting smaller, because windows newer versions
are moving away from the DOS world I know so much about, and linux
versions are building better ways to handle their inner workings, the
base.

Earlier it was important to know a lot about the inner workings of a
computer, because we had to get under the hood and fix things often.

I think about my father's first car, I remember it standing still with
the motor exposed and my father working inside it.

Today many of us start realizing that what is important are the data
files we have collected, that is what is worth saving and backing up.

Our collections of old programs and favorite programs and operating
systems have become less important, because we have more choices now,
if one system doesn't work we can handle our data files with another
system.

I can use a live-cd, a usb stick, another hard disk, another ghost
image, etc..

I sometimes think about my old DOS programs and DOS/Windows knowledge
as an old carpenter thinks about his old tools. He knows that they are
practically worthless now when he has modern electric tools, but he
doesn't just want to throw them away and forget them either.

 

[Jast]

Hi
I tried Knoppix and Ubuntu LiveCDs last week and had a very similar
experience to Roger.
Knoppix loaded quickly and was relatively easy to use from CD.
Ubuntu was so slow (more than 1 hour to "boot" into a usable condition)
that many times I had thought it was in a terminal "hang".

I had the same problem. I think there is a bug with ubuntu 6 that causes
some extremely slow boot times (about 30 minutes in my case). So, I
booted unbuntu 5 and installed that quite quickly and easily, I then
updated to ubuntu 6 and it worked fine, nice and fast so I had no
complaints.

 

[Mark Warner]

I had the same problem. I think there is a bug with ubuntu 6 that
causes some extremely slow boot times (about 30 minutes in my case).
So, I booted unbuntu 5 and installed that quite quickly and easily, I
then updated to ubuntu 6 and it worked fine, nice and fast so I had no
complaints.

The "Desktop" CD that was introduced with Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) -- a
combination Live/Install CD -- has proven to be a less-than-stellar
performer. Prior to v6.06, the Live CD and Install CD were two separate
disks. Unfortunately, the "Desktop" is the only Live CD option for
Ubuntu Dapper. Additionally, there are numerous reports of difficulties
in using The Desktop CD for installation.

The conventional wisdom (which corresponds with my experience) is that
it is best to use the "Alternative" disk for installation. This disk
uses the tried-and-true Debian text installer, and gives you much finer
control of the install.

 

[prospero33]

I have been playing with Live CD Linux distributions for several months
-- have used well over a dozen of them. The one I use every day is
Puppy Linux: www.puppylinux.org.
It boots up in under a minute on my 400mhz machine (Pentium II). I
surf, print, process, burn, and everything else with flashing speed and
perfect reliability. And the download is only about 70 megs.

 

[Daze N. Knights]

I have been playing with Live CD Linux distributions for several months
-- have used well over a dozen of them. The one I use every day is
Puppy Linux: www.puppylinux.org.
It boots up in under a minute on my 400mhz machine (Pentium II). I
surf, print, process, burn, and everything else with flashing speed and
perfect reliability. And the download is only about 70 megs.

It's Fred Langa's favorite, as well. But I remember giving it a try and
getting so confused, at the time, with answering its questions while it
was loading, that I ended up chucking the thing. Maybe I should give it
another try someday?

 

[Achim Nolcken Lohse]

I just tested knoppix 5 in the same way that I tested mepis a few hours
ago.

Knoppix installed faster, and was a lot easier to use.
What took me two hours in mepis took me 15 minutes in knoppix.

I have an older version (2004!)of Simply Mepis that I just ran, and it
loaded quickly and ran fairly well. I image both distros turn up
duds. I know I've burned a number of bad Knoppix releases.

One thing I like about Knoppix though, is that it's easy to find all
the details of the latest release before downloading - cheatcodes,
changes, packages included. I spent much more time looking at the
current Simply Mepis download sites today, and didn't find that.