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01/03/2005 Archived Entry: "New USB flash drive and CD-bootable Linuxes"

I'M WRITING THIS BLOG ENTRY ONTO A USB FLASH DRIVE using a CD-bootable Linux distro, PCLinuxOS. Both goodies were delivered by the Linux Fairy (aka Plinker-MS and Mrs. Plinker). And I must say (as an old Hungarian immigrant lady of my acquaintance used to utter), "I'm stouned!"

Hard to believe that any lipstick-sized drive could hold 512MB of storage. Or that Linux and Microsoft documents can reside side-by-side on it with minimal difficulty. Or that it could contain onboard encryption (under Windows only, and Plinker says don't trust that).

Hard to believe that a Linux distro that boots from a CD drive without any installation onto the system can be so full-featured. Open Office, browsers, mail programs, multimedia ... they're all here. Hard to believe that any Linux distro could just pop in and recognize all my laptop's hardware without a hiccup.

After receiving a folder full of Linux CDs, including five or six CD-bootables, on Linuxmas Day, I first used LiveCDs on an older computer with only 96MB of RAM and a 300MHz processor. That didn't work well. But now I'm back on my regular laptop with 256MB of RAM and a 750MHz processor, and these CD bootables work as well as my installed Linux - better in some cases because they're later editions with many of the bugs worked out. (Never mind that this computer already has Mandrake Linux on it; you can never have too many Linuxes.)

I'm very, very impressed with PCLinuxOS and SimplyMEPIS. I'd be impressed with Knoppix 3.7 also, if it didn't have "issues" with the flash drive and the entire /mnt directory.

But as is, at least two of these CD bootables could virtually replace a major installed Linux. Nice way to get somebody started on Linux without making the big commitment to install.

I'm going with PCLinuxOS, though. How could I resist? This is "The Outlaw Edition" and it opens with a revolver-bearing Tux.

Posted by Claire @ 11:38 AM CST
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