We use Libranet Linux at home (a commercial version of Debian--wonderful distro.) My kids have become Linux "true believers" and now are very disappointed in Windows.

However, their public school, like most, still uses Windows . . . NT or 2000 I think; I know it's not XP. So when doing assignments, they struggle with moving their essays (OpenOffice.org) back and forth from home to school as RTF files, and other workarounds. I've considered teaching them LaTeX, so they can just write using plain text and be done with it (it would have many other advantages too, but that's a topic for another message.)

Anyway, all the school computers are networked together. They seem to have CD and/or DVD drives, no floppies, and perhaps USB ports. So I guess Knoppix would run. But does Knoppix present any problems in a highly networked system like this? They (and I) would be in big trouble if Knoppix "broke" anything. We could only consider using it if it left the hard drive and the network absolutely alone and untouched. And even then I probably wouldn't try it. But is that what Knoppix is: a functional linux system that is utterly and completely isolated from the hard drive and from any other operating system on the computer?

Anyone have any experience using Knoppix in this manner on public school computers?

Thanks.

--Chris