I just d/l'd the latest CD+DVD, tried them in my shop Tuesday, and was TOTALLY blown away ! I had a couple of PCs in my shop w/ wireless problems. Several days ago, I'd GOOGLEd for a live CD with good wireless support, in anticipation of a day like yesterday. While the tests weren't an exhaustive, scientific survey, Knoppix 6.2.1 was most impressive.

Specifically, I had a Compaq F756 laptop and a Gateway T1630 laptop, both w/ failed WiFi under Vista. Customers were planning to reimage both, to try and restore WiFi. The Compaq customer was going to be a PITA, if reimaging didn't restore WiFi, so I boot the Compaq from my 6.2.1 disc for laughs. In a minute or so, there's a bubble message from the networking icon on the taskbar, indicating there are wireless networks available ! I select my store's [unencrypted] hotspot, as I would from Windows, w/ a couple of mouse clicks. Just like that, I have another bubble message indicating a new connection ! A few seconds later, I was on the 'net using IceWeasel, visiting various [non-Flash] websites. I mention that I skipped Flash-oriented sites, bec all of the speed test sites I know of require a Flash-compatible browser, but performance [intuitively] seemed to be very good.

I tried 6.2.1 on five other wireless computers, w/ range of chipsets, but mostly different models of Atheros, one Intel 4965, and a Belkin F5D USB adapter. One laptop (a Dell Latitude 500) crashed before reaching the desktop, but the rest worked flawlessly !

For the sake of full disclosure, these weren't exhaustive tests including connectivity to WPA/WPA2 routers, persistence, robustness, etc. However, this release is a quantum leap over the last Knoppix release I spent time networking, specifically 5.1. It took many hours of reading, configuring, testing, and more re-reading, before I got working WiFi/WPA connectivity. I do intend to do a lot more testing during the coming days. Having said all that, this development (ie. introduction of the Network Manager applet) moves Linux a big step closer to novice-compatibility.

I really thought Knoppix was dead, giving the amount of time between official releases of a live CD (in the vicinity of two years !) It appears reports of Knoppix' demise have been exaggerated....