Knoppix 3.5 Linuxtag DVD edition

**nvgringo** · 08-04-2004, 07:40 PM

You might want to remaster it so that it boots in English. Also there is over a gig of documentation in German, video clips, etc. There is a program called eclipse. Might be able to strip some of this stuff off to get the size down. The actual knoppix program is around 2 gig. The Knoppix/Knoppix file is right at 2 gigs

**eco2geek** · 08-05-2004, 07:28 AM

To give you a rough idea: Knoppix 3.4 installed on the hard drive comes to ~2 GB (I haven't installed much). Knoppix 3.5 running off the DVD comes to ~9 GB.

Apart from the graphics, it looks and feels exactly like 3.4, with tons of extra software.

Anyone know of any license issues that would make putting it up as a torrent a violation of the license? It looks like it's all straight GPL.

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 08-05-2004, 12:17 PM

Wow, 9GB is big! I guess the 3.5 DVD is compressed then as the biggest DVD I've seen is 4.7GB.

Regards,
AJG

**j.drake** · 08-05-2004, 07:05 PM

AJ,

Sony has a new dual-layer burner that tops 8GB, but media is still pretty scarce. Others are coming out with them also. In fact almost all non-burned DVDs are dual layer, with capacities well over 8 GB - it's only the DVD+R and DVD-R which are limited to 4.7. Even then, from a practical standpoint, you really have only between 4.2 and 4.3 GB of the 4.7 available for data, which served as a surprise to me the first time I tried to burn 4.5 GB to a DVD+R.

I'm sure it's compressed, just like the Knoppix CD is, but if Knoppix ever wanted to "publish" this in a dual layer DVD, they could easily double the content again!!

jd

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 08-05-2004, 10:39 PM

Originally Posted by j.drake

I'm sure it's compressed, just like the Knoppix CD is, but if Knoppix ever wanted to "publish" this in a dual layer DVD, they could easily double the content again!!

jd, it just goes to show, you'll never be satisfied!

Regards,
AJG

**sn0wflake** · 08-07-2004, 04:16 AM

I don't approve the direction Knoppix is heading regarding the size of recent distributions. DVD releases do not live up to my expectation of Knoppix being portable, i.e. can be used on all hardware, even old stuff. Downloading of a DVD is also too painful, even with a multi-megabit connection. When it's finally downloaded you have to burn it and I personally know nobody with a DVD-burner.
It's funny and ironic how Linux users make fun of Windows bloatware and then read the Knoppix forum where 9 GB is just dandy and übercool.
My idea of Knoppix 3.5 was with Linux kernel 2.6.8 only on a single CD. I just hope this DVD release is a mere testbed.

**eadz** · 08-07-2004, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by sn0wflake

I don't approve the direction Knoppix is heading regarding the size of recent distributions. DVD releases do not live up to my expectation of Knoppix being portable, i.e. can be used on all hardware, even old stuff. Downloading of a DVD is also too painful, even with a multi-megabit connection. When it's finally downloaded you have to burn it and I personally know nobody with a DVD-burner.
It's funny and ironic how Linux users make fun of Windows bloatware and then read the Knoppix forum where 9 GB is just dandy and übercool.
My idea of Knoppix 3.5 was with Linux kernel 2.6.8 only on a single CD. I just hope this DVD release is a mere testbed.

This is not the "Knoppix 3.5" Release, but a thread about a DVD being handed out at LinuxTag called Knoppix 3.5.. There will be a 3.5 Knoppix CD for sure.

WRT the bloatware, you can't really compare Windows with the Knoppix DVD this way. The DVD contains just about every program anyone would want from sound editors to database and programming tools, whereas windows is just the OS and you have to buy seperatly applications for it.

**nvgringo** · 08-08-2004, 12:23 AM

I am working on a DVD knoppix compilation of my own. Aptly named Bloat

I ordered the 3.5 dvd with the intention of building on it. I do not see 9 gigs of software. The compressed KNOPPIX file is 2 gig. The compression ratio is about 40%. You do the math. The rest of the DVD is filled up with mostly documentation in German. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of good software on the DVD and I am quite happy with it. It cost $18 dollars and came with another DVD with BDS software.
For me there seems to be a limit of 2 gigs on the compressed KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX file. I dont know why. Once I do get it figured out I am going to put as much software as I possibly can on the DVD. And it will be Bloat and proud of it!

**nvgringo** · 08-08-2004, 12:31 AM

by the way I have an older computer with a 4 gig hard drive. On it I have a version of my Bloat installed as a HD based install. Nearly 5 gigs of software and a 2 gig home directory and a 250 meg swap on a 4 gig hard drive is a nice use of old hardware.

**Cuddles** · 08-08-2004, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by eadz

This is not the "Knoppix 3.5" Release, but a thread about a DVD being handed out at LinuxTag called Knoppix 3.5.. There will be a 3.5 Knoppix CD for sure.

WRT the bloatware, you can't really compare Windows with the Knoppix DVD this way. The DVD contains just about every program anyone would want from sound editors to database and programming tools, whereas windows is just the OS and you have to buy seperatly applications for it.

Sounds like the DVD release at LinuxTag Convention is intended to be the "complete" users release for people who just want to pop in the DVD and boot from it only. If it has everything "anyone" would ever want on it, it wouldn't need to support "klik" then - and a person who just wants a bootable CD/DVD OS, would be extrememly happy with everything already included on it. If someone wanted to use this for, lets say, a hard drive install, chances are, they would have a lot of "apt-get remove" 's to do, to get the hard drive install "cleaned up"...

I have to admit though, this "convention" release of Knoppix, is by far, a great tool for introducing people to the "other" OS they can use, and may "sway" some of them away from the Microsoft alternatives, when they can see just how much software comes with the OS already, and free of charge. Just having OpenOffice.Org included with Knoppix, or just a simple "apt-get install", can save a person from spending upwards of $300 on MS's Office Suite... and having the "development" software already included with Knoppix, saves a person from spending, I think its running around $400 plus, to get MS's development software packages; either VB.Net, VB, VC, VJ, etc... ( all of which, does not come "standard" with any MS OS )

I am quite sure the "future" is going to come down to everyone releasing OS's on DVD, since driver manufacturers have already started to release their drivers on CD-ROM, and these programs and drivers only take as little as a few megabyte of the media already. Some "big" programs already are coming out on multiple CD-ROMs, and they may be considering to re-release these on a single DVD, so that it can all be contained on a single DVD instead.

I am sure that "Knoppix" can see where the "future" is going, and that very shortly, every personal computer is going to have at least one DVD device on them, and slowly, these devices are going to be replacing the older technology of just a CD-ROM device. Computer manufacturers are probably going to start building "standard" PC's with a DVD device, and possibly a floppy, and forgo the installing of a CD-ROM, or even a CD-RW device in them. Since the DVD devices can also read CD-ROM's, ( backward compatability ), and support the DVD reading, and writting, of higher storage capacities.

I would guess that advertisements for say, Dell and Gateway, are going to start selling people on systems that come with a DVD, and possibly the "upgrade" option of making that DVD into a DVD writter, instead of the older commercials being centered around a CD-ROM, and the option of upgrading that to a writter....

Knoppix supports a lot of the older systems, and the hardware, but, someday, that is going to have to start to fall-off -=- i.e. Windows doesn't support any system that is running an XT class, or anything that runs as slow as one of those, 4.77 MHz. I don't think anything supports the XT class anymore, and for that matter, the AT class. I think its just "Computer evolution". As newer processors, hardware, speed, and periferals get better, and faster, some of the "older" stuff, falls-off the support "train". As with MS, every new release of Windows adds more constraints on what it requires, and has, dropped support for some of the older systems that still have useful years to go. Most of the "Linux" operating systems have been there to "catch" a lot of this "fall-off" support, and has, probably, gained its popularity on the basis that it still "can" support these systems. But, as with any operating system, it has limitations. Sooner or later, a operating system must start to drop support for older technology, if it is going to keep up with a lot of the newer technology, if it doesn't start "dropping" support for things, it will just become a "bogged down" OS just for the sake of supporting older stuff, and thus, not be able to incorporate newer technology because it has too much baggage from the support of the old.

Just my two schillings worth,
Ms. Cuddles