Is Knoppix right for me?

[klop]

Hi,

I'm trying to see which Linux distribution is right for me. Knoppix could fill the bill, but I'm concerned that
its focus as a leading-edge portable O/S makes it less suitable as a desktop O/S.

Security is the main thing that comes to mind.

For example, since Knoppix is ahead of the normal Debian stable distribution the normal security updates from the Debian stable security team are not available. Are security updates available for Knoppix from another source, apt or otherwise?

The portability of Knoppix is an interesting feature. It would be useful to use the same O/S at home and on the road. What percentage of Internet cafes are prepared to allow you to boot your own O/S?

At the moment, I'm thinking that the stable release of Debian 4.0 would be a good choice but I presume it will fall behind Knoppix sooner rather than later.

I'm also wondering whether I should spend more time playing with Ubuntu but its divergence from Debian worries me a bit. Knoppix seems a lot closer to Debian than Ubuntu.

Any comments welcome.

A.

[Harry Kuhman]

If you're comparing Knoppix and Debian then you are apparently thinking of installing a system to hard disk. See answer #2 for a pointer to the faq that explains why installing Knoppix is not a good idea. And I have yet to find any valid motive for trying to install Knoppix over Debian.

Debian does have the problem of being an extremely slow to change system. If your computer is from the last century then Sarge/Stable might run on it well, but stable is too old for my liking. At the moment I use Etch and would suggest Etch for anyone considering Debian unless they want to be on the bleeding edge. In spite of the term "testing" I find it very stable. Etch was due to become the stable version last year, but as already said the Debian group is slow and an internal fude is delaying things further. I expect when there is a new testing I'll switch to that.

There are a lot of Linux distros out there and you really have to pick your own. Some like Ubuntu; I con't see any merit to it, but maybe others find hardware support missing in Debian. It does seem to have a faster development cycle, if that's what you're looking for.

[klop]

If you're comparing Knoppix and Debian then you are apparently thinking of installing a system to hard disk. See answer #2 for a pointer to the faq that explains why installing Knoppix is not a good idea..

I couldn't find the answer #2 you were referring to, but I assume you're talking about the security remarks in the Knoppix FAQ? I don't recall reading anything about why installing to HD was inherently insecure since it is supposed to be some sort of Debian install, but I can well understand that security of the HD install in not a priority for Knoppix developers.
...

Debian does have the problem of being an extremely slow to change system. If your computer is from the last century then Sarge/Stable might run on it well, but stable is too old for my liking. At the moment I use Etch and would suggest Etch for anyone considering Debian unless they want to be on the bleeding edge. In spite of the term "testing" I find it very stable. Etch was due to become the stable version last year, but as already said the Debian group is slow and an internal fude is delaying things further. I expect when there is a new testing I'll switch to that.

Does Etch get security updates via apt? I'm unclear about whether the testing security group does this. For the most part Sarge is fine for me, but I would like to use a later KDE and still get security updates.

There are a lot of Linux distros out there and you really have to pick your own. Some like Ubuntu; I con't see any merit to it, but maybe others find hardware support missing in Debian. It does seem to have a faster development cycle, if that's what you're looking for.

Apart from supporting my linmodem out of the box, I liked Ubuntu for similar reasons I like Knoppix - more up to date than Sarge and it looks like someone is adding an extra level of quality control/refinement to the standard release, however I'm uncomfortable with having a for-profit corporation behind the distribution which appears to diverge significantly more from Debian than Knoppix.

The stand-out reason to use Knoppix is obviously its portability. I'm curious how well this works in practise and what percentage of Internet cafes are happy to let you boot up your own O/S.

[Harry Kuhman]

I couldn't find the answer #2 you were referring to, but I assume you're talking about the security remarks....

Does Etch get security updates via apt? I'm unclear about whether the testing security group does this. For the most part Sarge is fine for me, but I would like to use a later KDE and still get security updates.

Oppps, looks like I forgot to mark answer #2 with this link. Sorry for the confusion.

No, it's not just a security issue. it's a matter of Knoppix not being designed for hard disk and breaking stuff, both when installed and if you try to update anything (like, for example, those security updates you mention). A very common complaint is networking that worked fine from the CD but breakes after the install, but there are many others.

I don't fully know when Etch gets security updates. I have seen some discussion that indicates there may be delays. This isn't a big issue for me but if you're running servers it could well be. Etch is certainly likely to be more updated than Knoppix though, so if security updates are a concern the warning against installing Knoppix still stands.

[calvinho12]

Hi,

I'm trying to see which Linux distribution is right for me. Knoppix could fill the bill, but I'm concerned that
its focus as a leading-edge portable O/S makes it less suitable as a desktop O/S.

Security is the main thing that comes to mind.

For example, since Knoppix is ahead of the normal Debian stable distribution the normal security updates from the Debian stable security team are not available. Are security updates available for Knoppix from another source, apt or otherwise?

The portability of Knoppix is an interesting feature. It would be useful to use the same O/S at home and on the road. What percentage of Internet cafes are prepared to allow you to boot your own O/S?

At the moment, I'm thinking that the stable release of Debian 4.0 would be a good choice but I presume it will fall behind Knoppix sooner rather than later.

I'm also wondering whether I should spend more time playing with Ubuntu but its divergence from Debian worries me a bit. Knoppix seems a lot closer to Debian than Ubuntu.

Any comments welcome.

A.

Not yet up-to-date with all the linux-related terms but, me too am going to play a bit with the knoppix and ubuntu versions I've been distributed and speed up to date, then decide which version is right for my uses.

[ARMac]

I am using Knoppix 5.1.1 installed on HD for over a week or so and all i can say as for a desktop user, thumbs up. I had some problems with the CD version so i vote for the DVD version. It meets all my "loser-user" needs as dvd/divx, mp3, some games, emulators, OpenGL, office work, internet (kopete is so cute btw, KDE ftw) etc etc. I downloaded some games like: Cube 1 & 2, Open Quake 3, Alien Arena. I mannaged to sucessefuly update WINE to its latest version and now bunch of a must apps (for me at least) work, like WhereIsIt and WoW . Haven't got any stability problems so far and apt-get works as well as it should.
Some other users may have different experience with stability I guess, but that may depend of your hardware. Mine is ATA system with Athlon 2000+, system just about a year and half old. I won't advice installing the CD version since it does not include the kernel source needed for the nVIDIA driver and you will probably need to recompile the kernel and for a newb its very confusing.