Savanna Says: Kneat Knoppix!

In the third article of what is turning into a regular column, Savanna Says: Kneat Knoppix! You should really read this if you had wanted to try or demo KDE before but you couldn't -- because you thought it required a full Linux or Unix installation.

Kneat Knoppix!

After my last article about Kontact, a lot of people were wondering: "Is Linux/GNU/KDE good for me?" -- regular users that is, coders don't seem to have to ask -- and then they wrote to me asking that very thing.

Surprise!

Well, I have two answers for you today:

1. Yes.
2. Try it out for yourself!

Now, let's clarify those positions.

Number 1: Yes! KDE is ready for regular users. At least, I think so. In fact, I am planning some exploratory articles on that very same subject in the very near future. Now, however, I just want to jot this little review down and get it on digital paper.

Number 2: Try it out for yourself! Great news! With Knoppix, you can do it and you can do it easily. This is what this article is about: Knoppix. It's a great thing and it is making waves all over the world. Let me give you a quick user's rundown:

When I started with Linux a while ago (or GNU/Linux), it was a little complicated to install. I'm using Debian Linux on this desktop and it is sort of a patchwork build of a system which was mostly maintained with some serious learning at times when I did something wrong, and some serious corrections at times from the good coders in #debian-kde (whom I have mentioned in previous articles). Now, I went with Linux knowing I would probably have to learn a little bit more about computers than I was used to. Remember: I'm a regular user.

Okay... you're with me, right? Regular user, Debian Linux install with KDE. Tinkering needed to learn some new things. Got it?

Okay.

Not anymore.

You see, the one thing that kept me back from telling all my friends and family that they could switch was that I wasn't sure that they wanted to do what I had to do: learn a little more about computers to make some things work and install. Now, however, they don't have to.

Enter Knoppix.

What is Knoppix? Well, Knoppix is, in a sense, one of the last links in the regular users puzzle. Knoppix is a CD on which you'll find a Debian Linux kernel and one of the latest KDE3 desktop systems. It's about 700 megs and fits exactly on one CD.

And it is awesome.

Why? Well, let me tell you something: When I tell people that if they want to try Linux, they can just install it and try it, that's a pretty hard sell. Most people hear "install" and their eyes sort of glaze over and they start to think "Why bother?" And remember the tinkering part? Well, tinkering happens at all phases with a distro that you don't buy targeting new users (like SuSE, Mandrake, etc...). The hardest part is telling people that they have to install to see what it is like. Even with an easy install that auto-boots into KDE, people don't want to have to install or tinker to try anything out first. But with Knoppix... you don't have to do that.

All you have to do is put it in your CD drive, boot up, and presto! you've got a Linux system -- and a beautiful KDE3 desktop -- running all from your CD drive. No install, no weird lines of code... try it out and you will see how beautiful KDE and Linux are, and you won't even have to get your hands dirty or look under the hood.

And you don't have to commit unless you are truly impressed and decide to switch.

This is the best part: you can download it free, burn it, and carry it around with you to show your friends, family, etc... it will boot on any PC and won't even touch their hard drive. Demo it anywhere. If they like it, give it to them -- you can install Knoppix from the CD to your hard drive if you want to switch, and spread the good word.

Isn't that fantastic?

Before Knoppix, you had to tell people to install things. Now you don't have to. Talk about a real revolution. People are talking about Knoppix handout drives to spread the word. People are carrying a few of the CD's in their bags or briefcases or even their purse to show others how great KDE and Linux are! Mass singing is breaking out and peace is befalling the earth as everyone joins hands and...

Well, that last part I made up but you get the idea. Knoppix really is that cool.

So, you're asking me "Okay... what's up with this? How easy is it to burn and all that?"

Well, you just go to their site: http://www.knoppix.net/ (This is the English site) and you read the FAQ -- which I found to be a little geeky but fairly general enough that some users might understand what they are talking about (something that they should work on to be a little simpler to understand, I think, but it is a nice start!).

From there, you find out where to download the 700 meg ISO CD image. Now... a few things with this:

1. Most people don't know what an ISO is, but I believe that they explain it well enough.
2. It's a 700 meg download so broadband is a must -- unless you don't mind waiting a week to get it.
3. They do have CD's for sale which they can send you for the non-broadband or techie users out there who can't make heads or tail of their FAQ.
4. They go into checking the ISO file after the download with the checksum file -- something which most users will sort of glaze over. I know I did originally and needed some help from my friendly IRC people in #debian-kde.
5. They do explain how to burn the CD with Nero -- which is important. Most Window users get a PC with Nero or another kind of software and they seem to take the time to explain how to do this, even though they say that it is outside of the scope of the FAQ at large. This is important as many people do not know how to burn an ISO to be bootable etc...

After you burn, you're basically done. I did have to download it twice, however (bit of a pain). What happened is that the first image didn't download well or something so I had to download it again. Apparently that is what the Checksum file is for: to make sure that the file you downloaded is in working condition. To make a long story short: Getting it and burning it was a little on the techie side. Needs to be improved, but very good start overall.

Now for the good part.

Turn off your PC, leave the Knoppix CD in the CD tray, and boot up.

Okay, at this point you should know that Knoppix is new and still has some bugs in it. Don't worry! It won't touch your HD at all. I'm just talking about booting-up bugs. It kept dumping me in the middle of the boot up and giving me weird errors on the screen and it would freeze. Don't worry: just reboot. It'll work fine eventually. It took me 3 tries and it kept giving me errors every now and then, but finally, I was in the desktop!

There it was. Right on my Windows PC that I use for backups, I had a KDE desktop. And I didn't even boot off of the hard drives.

All the main programs are crammed in there beautifully, and the icon set is really pretty. The only thing I wasn't fond of was the background. It looked too "H4x0r" Matrix/techie for my tastes. If I could suggest something, I would suggest a little tamer background now for regular users.

How did it handle? It handled beautifully. I was using a Linux/KDE system from my CD drive.

Nice.

Any bad points? Not that I can think of at the top of my head. (Anyway, I'm trying to get people to try this because it really won't hurt, is fairly simple, and fun to use.)

Now, if only I had seen this a year ago. Of course, it wasn't really around back then, at least in that form.

So, what did I do next? I decided to keep it. I had some instructions on how to install after I had booted up. I typed in: Control-Alt-F1 and got into console mode, typed in "knx-hdinstall" and it guided me through a very easy to install process. I just chose which partitions I wanted to use (not very friendly as of yet but it'll get there), put in my IP numbers etc... and away we go.

Again, it was a little buggy so it failed two times before it got it on the third. Again, weird messages on the screen and froze up. What did I do? I just hit the reboot button and started over. A bit tedious but I can deal. That has happened to me with a Windows installation before so I wasn't that worried about it. And anyway, by this point, I was already well into the process of erasing the hard drive and rewriting over it, so it didn't concern me in the least.

Finally, it worked! It installed, booted, went directly into KDE3 and I suddenly have a fully functional Knoppix system on my backup machine and it looks great. I love it. I totally love it. In fact, I keep the CD in my purse and bring it around with me to show people. It's little geeky me, but it's great and people are wowed. This is Linux like they never knew existed. I'm dispelling the "Command Line Mode Only" picture with this one CD and I'm doing a great job of it.

Now you can too.

So try it! Give it a whirl. Either buy the CD (very cheap) or just download and burn it yourself. At worst, you blow a CD or two trying. But in no time flat you will have an awesome CD that is changing the world of computing.

Thank you team Knoppix. I give you a big thumbs up.