Mein vision: mating Knoppix with TheOpenCD.org --> cute b

[blivius]

I've got a vision for an uber advocacy CD that combines the best of Knoppix with the recent new release of TheOpenCD.org.

I would need to carve out 250MB of the 700MB Knoppix CD to make room for TheOPenCD.

Here's how it would work...
Loading the CD into a running windows instance you would not see any Knoppix but instead it would bring up the OpenCD installer to give the user the ability to install OpenOffice and 250MB of several other quality OpenSource apps onto their running windows system.

But then loading the CD on initial boot would bring up 450MB worth of the compressed Knoppix we all know and love.

Is this idea feadible? If so it would sure make for a most excellent GNU/Linux/OpenSource advocacy CD.

Comments please!

-blivius

[baldyeti]

Quick and dirty solution:
1) download a morphix "combined" image. HeavyGUI (gnome) weights
450 Mb and KDE 400 - looks like they both would suit your purpose.
Burn that as your first CD session, so it's bootable.
2) mount the opencd ISO as a read-only filesystem (under linux), and
burn its content in a second CD session. You could first rename the morphix
index.html into say morphix.html, and you can override the autorun.* files.

But that's trivial and not very polished What you'll want to do is learn how
to do a proper knoppix remaster. It would make sense to ensure the linux
versions of the software available for windows is there for the live system.
You'd need to Learn how to use debian packages management tools, and
be prepared to quite a few rounds of trial and errror before your remastered
image fits the available space. Then you'd use it as explained above, in place
of the morphix one. Also, use a CD-RW while iterating ;-)

Now, IMNSHO an operating system that does not need you HD at all yet
comes with a wealth of quality software - that's knoppix as we know it - is
much more impressive and useful than advocating OSS under proprietary
platforms. Having said this, if the opencd's have room enough for a full
linux live demo, why not hijack that indeed? Good luck.

[Henrik]

I've got a vision for an uber advocacy CD that combines the best of Knoppix with the recent new release of TheOpenCD.org.

Funny, we have just started working o this! Come join the effort :D

See Linux on TheOpenCD (http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/forum/viewforum.php?f=16) in our forum. One of our members, DarrylPalmerJr, has started working on sliming down 3.3-11-19, and says he might have an alpha ready by Monday. I'm sure he could use some help though.

We plan to keep the Knoppix part lean and mean, and simple for our end-user target audience. That means taking out all the devel tools, limiting ourselves to one GUI, and probably even remove OpenOffice. We hope we can get it to run quite fast, so that we can really impress!

btw: this is not a new idea. Klaus and I have emailed about it way back.

- Henrik
TheOpenCD.org admin