Knoppix on networked public school computers?

[ryancw]

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

[SiKing]

By default, Knoppix tries to mount all hard drives it finds as READ-only. You actually have to specifically ask Knoppix to change the read/write mode on any hard drive, which it will happily do once you confirm that you indeed want to do this.
As for using Knoppix in a "public" environment like this. I would suggest you be very careful. Linux and especially LiveCD distros are viewed by some - some even technically adept - as hacking tools, and can lead to suspensions or worse ...
All the best.

[rcook]

The title says it all. If they do boot don't configure the network. There is also Open CD for Windows, http://www.theopencd.org/ It will install Open Office and/or other Freeware on a windows system. Here again 1) the machines may be configured to prevent an install and 2) you/your children will be pushing the envelope if you install software on the schools computers.

[banjo man]

I'm pretty new to linux, used to be a windows guy... *shudder*


linux has been very good to me...at school too

my first was DSL(Damn small linux-50 megs minimal (I have dial-up, so 50 megs wasn't as bad as a full 700... )

dsl is knoppix based,

so at school I booted my live cd on one of their machines, just like that- it already set up the network, sound, found all the drives...(without touching the hdd)

only thing I needed was to set up the internet proxy...(our school needs the user to log in to the proxy...)
though logging in is not a problem, as the tech support is very poor, and can't tell the difference between me logging from a windows machine, or knoppix...

using dsl, and figuring out the fancy samba thing to save the iso to my own folder on the school's public space, I downloaded the newest knoppix full iso...

never looked back...


if the pc supports booting from usb, you can just copy the files from cd to a jump drive, and boot from there

I've had good fortune when slurping the school's T1 connection to the internet, with no problems from the tech/network/hard drives