Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Knoppix Reloaded

Hacks 96–108

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Klaus Knopper should be blushing. According to Knoppix.net, Knoppix is used as a base for over 90 other live CDs—and those are just the CDs that the Knoppix.net community has added! It is difficult to include all the necessary software with only 2 GB of uncompressed space at your disposal. Knoppix variants have appeared because people who wanted to create their own live CDs discovered just how easy it is to remaster Knoppix—something you too will discover in [Create a Customized Knoppix]. With Knoppix as a base, these developers benefit from the hardware support and the configuration that Knoppix uses, and can spend their energy on making specialized tweaks for their needs instead. Some of these Knoppix-based CDs, such as Morphix, are used as a base themselves to create other distributions.

Knoppix-based distributions run the full spectrum in terms of what they can do and what can be changed. Some distributions have kept most of Knoppix intact, and have added only extra special-purpose software here and there. Others have almost redone Knoppix from the ground up. Distribution sizes vary dramatically as well, ranging from 50 MB for business-card CD variants, to a gigabyte or more for some of the DVD-based variants. Think about it; each of these live CDs is a hack of Knoppix itself.

This chapter highlights just a few of the better-known or interesting Knoppix variants. If you plan to create your ...