Knoppix is Live CD, and they were one of the firt to produce a Live CD. I have use Knoppix in the past as a quick way to demonstrate Linux. My initial reaction to version 6.0 was “how far they have fallen.” The automatic boot into Adriane with no instructions on how to boot straight to Knoppix was a bit disconcerting. Knoppix now uses LXDE, but with a twist. Work on another project allowed me to see Knoppix 6.0 from a different perspective. My first opinion needed some adjustment.
Entries from March 2009 ↓
Knoppix 6.0
March 24th, 2009 — Linux Desktops, Linux Distributions, Linux screen readers
Xubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid)
March 15th, 2009 — Linux Distributions
Xubuntu 8.10 is Ubuntu 8.10 with Xfce as the graphical desktop. Even though LXDE is lighter, there are reasons to use Xfce as a desktop manager. Each graphical desktop manager comes with a set of packages for the common, and not so common tasks. Each graphical desktop manaager comes with its own menu structure for accessing packages. When choosing your default graphical desktop manager, you need to consider the entire package with lightness being one of the factors.
Window Manager versus Graphical Desktop
March 14th, 2009 — Linux Desktops
Linux / UNIX systems are based around the X Window System. To avoid confustion, we need to clear distinquish between login managers, window managers, and graphical desktops. Each plays a role in creating the desktop environment. While they may be the same, I separate login managers from windows managers.
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Xfce versus LXDE
March 12th, 2009 — Linux Desktops
Who is the lightest of the lightweight desktops? Is there enough difference to be worth the switch? What are the pros and cons of having multiple choices in desktops?
Choosing a Desktop
March 6th, 2009 — Linux Desktops
Linux doesn’t give you one graphical desktop, it gives you a choice between a lot of different graphcal desktops. Of course, you can run Linux in a pure text mode, which is fine for servers, but not for a workstation. The top two graphical desktops are KDE and Gnome. For systems with only 256 megabytes of memory Xfce is my preferred choice. Each distro has a default desktop, and some distros are offering different install sets for KDE, Gnome, Xfce, or LXDE. If you are new, which one do you choose.
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Which Linux Distribution?
March 6th, 2009 — Linux Distributions
According to Distro Watch, there are over 300 distributions of Linux available. I am not going to cover all 300 distributions of Linux. I leave that task to those who have much more patience and time than I. The Linux distributions that are going to be covered in this blog are:
The Test Environment
March 4th, 2009 — Hardware
Since this blog is about budget computers, it is appropriate to define the environment that I am using to evaluate both the hardware, and the different Linux distributions (distros in Linux speak) used. This post will define the four computers used for testing the software. None of them are new, and only one of them would run Windows XP. Of course, Vista, or Windows 7, are totally out of the picture. All of them are running the latest distributions of Linux. These crusty old machines are as follows:
Scrounging for Cheap Computers
March 3rd, 2009 — Hardware
Find a cheap computer is like a treasure hunt. Using the guidelines from the previous search, it is time to dig out the treasure map and start searching for that great deal.
