Knoppix

 Knoppix is Linux Distibution based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD, consisting of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. Knoppix can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it (over 8GB on the DVD "Maxi" edition), one of the first of its kind for any operating system Knoppix is developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program it is loaded from the optical disc and decompressed into a RAM drive. The decompression is transparent. Although Knoppix is primarily designed to be used as a Live CD, it can also be installed on a hard dsk like a typical operating system. Computers that support booting from USB devices can load Knoppix from a live USB flash drive or memory card.Knoppix is available in English and German. It mostly consists of free software.
 System Requerments
-- Intel-compatible processor (i486 or later)
-- 32 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 64 MB for graphics mode with LXDE (at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products)
-- Bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI)
-- Standard SVGA-compatible graphics card
-- Serial or PS/2 standard mouse or IMPS/2-compatible USB-mouse
 Installation
The installation seems to be pretty simple. When the boot prompt comes up just type "boot : knoppinx lang=en ( for english ) fr for French and so on..." after that pres CTRL-ALT-F1 to get a root konsole and type "knx-hdinstall". After that follow the installation menus and in about 20 minutes you will be done!
NOTE: If you want to do dual-boot with other OS you will want to install Grub Bootloader and configure it manually. For more info about GRUB please visit the manual page : "man grub".
-- When you've rebooted Knoppix from your hard disk, click on the KDE Control Centre icon in the launcher at the bottom of the screen (icon of a colour monitor with a card in front of it)
-- Within the Control Center, click on Personliche Einstellungen
-- Click on Land und Sprache
-- Choose the locale and language of your choice
-- Click on Andwenden at bottom of that window
-- Close and restart the Control Center
-- Click on Peripherals, then Keyboard, and choose your preferred keyboard layout (which will probably be US.English. Click OK and close the window
-- Press CTRL-ALT-F2 to get to the root console, and log in as root (using the password you chose when you ran the installer)
-- (Optional) - type apt-get update (followed by ENTER). This will update your list of available packages, and takes about 5-10 minutes.
 Software
More than 1000 software packages are included on the CD edition and more than 2600 are included on the DVD edition. Up to 9 gigabytes can be stored on the DVD in compressed form. These packages includes :
-- Linux-Kernel 2.6.x
-- KDE V3.x as the standard desktop with K Office and the Konqueror WWW-browser konqueror
-- X Multimedia System (xmms) an MPEG-video, MP3, Ogg Vorbis Audio player and xine
-- Internet connection software kppp,pppoeconf (DSL) and isdn-config
-- Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) Version 2.x
-- Utilities for data recovery and system repairs, even for other operating systems
-- Network and security analysis tools for network administrators
-- OpenOffice.org, the GPL-developed version of the well-known StarOffice(TM) office suite
-- Many programming languages, development tools and libraries for developers Knoppix is one of the first Live CDs available, and is known as the "original" Debian-based Live CD.
Its extensive hardware detection allows most systems to start Knoppix without any configuration and if a PC does not enough RAM to run KDE it automaticly run twm session instead. Anyway there is no such thing as a "perfect" Linux Distribution and Knoppix. According to the statistics it runs very good on high number of PC's and Laptops but have some problems recognizing some cards made before 1998, or motherboards with a BIOS made before 2002. There are also a couple Knoppix books at AMAZON.COM Available Versions
The lastest available versions after are :
-- 5.3.1 (DVD) - 03/26/2008
-- 6.0.0 (CD) - 01/28/2099
-- 6.0.1 (CD) - 02/08/2009
For more information and downloads you can visit the Official Website