BlackTrack4-74

Some irresponsible person probably working for Microsoft may be from India through Freespire derivative (hacked and included some scripts to invade my box and interfere with my downloading (I am close to my target of 100) habits was caught red handed within 4 hours of stay inside my computer probably within FireFox as a cookie.

So I booted Live Black Track 4, saved few of my document files used for teaching undergraduate students (no harm done since I have finished my lectures and tutorials long time ago and I have only end semester examination.

Never keep my questions inside the computer for the examination) and did some forensic work and decided to re-install PCLinux2010-07 and I had (first complaint against PCLinux-its graphic partitioning tool has some major problems for a geek or a savvy) problem with formatting different partitions belonging to other operating systems (I use other partitions type as archives).

I did not loose any of my iso images (Only downside was I could not download any images and the plus side is I am giving a new lease of life to my age old computer (IBM of course).

Since it is black (BF4) saving many MiBs it is loaded with utilities you may not use for a life time.

I have decided to install it and before that I thought of posting this for my friends who browse through my tit bits.

Hacker you are also welcome.

My efforts are multi-barrel and I have several Linux distributions installed for an emergency.

This is where multi-booting and multi-barrel approach helps.

Warning for Would be Newbies to Linux

As I mentioned earlier with Freespire's website, when websites of the Linux distributions that are not monitored or maintained properly hackers could enter these sites with malicious intention and send down scripts with the download file or iso.

Then they can destroy everything in your box and get tagged to Firefox or web browser permanently.

I found such a script tagged to download files (new downloads and preventing my access to them) with Firefox and Google.

It is not a coincidence that I was expecting such a scenario from the day I suspected Freespire's website.

Amatix-2.2.-73

Note: This was done with Amatix 2.2 booted on RAM.

This is one of the best Live CDs for a geek with all the utilities, including PABX, MySQL, text editors and many more and Apache and there are three demo passwords and the root password.

You should download it from their website and the CD also has lot of documentation in a series of function keys F1 to F10.

I am forgetting all the keyboard commands and short cuts now that I am addicted to the Graphic mode.

Thank guys and girls you have included the graphic mode in addition to text mode.

Without that I would have lost myself in those powerful commands including apt get.

I am even forgetting even the startx and killall commands with my poor eye sight.

Old guys like us with poor memory would give up without a graphic mode.

Thank again for that.

The website also has very good documentation and one should read them before installing it in your hard drive.

For live CD booting it is all right not having read the documentation but I want give you the password for booting here.

It is mandatory one should read the documentation before doing anything if you are a newbie and testing a live CD.

This is one instance being a teacher myself (not Linux) and voracious reader that I congratulate you for not giving the passwords for your database in advance.

Very, very good distribution.

It is coming from Debian and light weight with xface and very fast to boot.

At the end of the booting it gives a summary (in text mode- read them too) of errors and my one had one.

That is a very good gesture (giving a summary of errors at the end of booting-all live CDs should include this small gesture which is immensely helpful) even for live booting.

Parafox and Linux-Offensive Marketing

This word the parafox that I coined in place of paradox to bypass a system that was eavesdropping on my web writing of different nature but in fact, factual in nature, on a Live CD so that I could not be traced or detected by the owl eyes.

It has already outlasted its originating events.

It has got a Linux tag now and if you type Linux and Parafox you are immediately directed to my writing on Live CDs.

The original meaning I intended is somewhat like outfoxing (is human in nature) the foxes but running parallel (is scientific in nature) and close to them the foxes.

Now it is the name for my blogspot at Google's.

If Google can coin a word so do I in the internet.

Since it has outlasted its true nature (if you read the original entries in this blogspot you get the picture clear) I want this word to be designated an entry into the Oxford Dictionary of new words.

If they do not then the Cambridge University should consider it in retrospect for future use.

I have also coined a another Concept.

It is called Offensive Medicine.

It is related to the dengue epidemic in Sri-Lanka.

The inactive Health Personnel in this country put the onus and the blame on the people and sham away from the government's responsibility in controlling it.

They sometimes punish the citizens and it may end up one day killing all the dengue patients to arrest the disease transmission. There are many adopted war heroes who are jobless now who can enact this.

The way the things are managed in this country even the WHO will agree on this measure.
This is all because the treatment is free if one enters a government hospital.

Having said that once upon a time when I was in the private sector I confirmed a case of dengue for a test costing about 50 rupees a person (on a child).

Two weeks later when I looked at the payments received (the institution has to pay this guy) by a particular doctor (he had put three to four entries per day including telephone calls) the charges were many thousand multiples of Rs. 50/=.

He actually did not physically visit the young child.

Soon after I left the institute since I could not do anything to prevent this scenario occurring again.

It is practiced to this day not only in that institution but elsewhere too.

There are no checks and balances!

To put this concept in another situation is appropriate to illustrate its spread.

Government dishes out free books but does not do anything to improve the standard of teaching and teacher training.

If the student fails it is the failure of the student but not the system.

I hope the you got the picture of Offensive Medicine, right.

Today I am going to introduce another concept.

It is called Offensive Marketing.

This concept is similar to Offensive Medicine Concept where the onus is on the patient or the poor citizen.

This is applied to the Free Software and Free Linux distributions.

Somewhat similar to the FUD (Fear , Uncertainty and Fear) mentality if you use Free distributions, there is no support and one bears the consequences.

Onus is his or hers to own but no responsibility attached to the software or the distribution.

It is fair enough but consider a person working for a reputable company takes the free software and add few of his or her own company (example Java Beans. Flash Flush, Adobe Dub to name a few and few of its own household names) brands and put out a distribution, that I call an Offensive Marketing (fringes and frills of it) strategy.

I have reason to believe that this is happening today.

1. The parafox

2. The Offensive Medicine Concept (purely Sri-Lankan Concept based on Buddhist Karma and Karma-Pala-Vipaka).

3. The Offensive Marketing Concept are few that comes to my mind using Professor De Bono's lateral thinking strategy.

I hope these three will get to Annals of Web Publishing before I die (so that I can claim proprietary rights, and that should last 70 years after my death of course).

In a tangential way I want Oxford Dictionary to recognize four abodes its due place., because English does not have proper equivalents.

They are
1. Metta- Universal an unbound compassion to all beings born and to be born

2. Karuna-The boundless kindness to everybody especially the downtrodden, the poor and the sick- We have lost this in this country including reconciliation after 30 odd years of ruthless killings on both sides of the divide.

3. Muditha- Joy to see the well being and success- I have not seen a good word in English. We get the pleasure of putting people to prison.
That is the opposite of Muditha, the psychopathy.

4.Upekka- the equanimity

I have no trust on the English scholars dealing with Oxford Dictionary will give any credit to me for the creation / origin of my word parafox since those 4 abodes that are not recognized by the English speaking community are far more important to all living beings including poor me.

There is no incentive for me to enrich English if nothing is done for my claim for this creation (if not repudiated) by the scholars, unfortunately.

LinuxGamers-Iglive-Update

I did not want to concentrate on games until I finish with the Linux distributions for educational activities.
It has the light and the heavy Hybrid versions and out of all the games I like Pingus, the most but Tux Racer is there.

But the Tux game I used to play with my son often when I was using Mandrake and Mandriva is not included probably due to copyright and ownership problems.

What is missing in Linux is games.

I am not sure whether the big Hybrid is doing justice to Linux claim for games.

I will never be able to download 4 GB DVD here in Sri-Lanka unless somebody is willing to download it and send it to me as a compliment.

If happen to go abroad for more than two weeks I will take my laptop with huge memory and download few of the DVDs.

Till then you have to count your fingers.

By then I have passed 100 Linux Live CDs and doing something else other than Linux.

Warning to Newbies and going to be Linux Fans

When I started exploring the 100 (now over 200) live CDs, I never thought or anticipated even in my wildest dreams what I am going to write now.

What I say now is possible and probable and some antecedent events made me to believe it now but not then.

I was trying to buy SuSe commercial version in Singapore (it is not available in Ceylon) and the response I got there was very poor.

They were trying their best not to sell me one.

I tried one of my friends in Singapore to buy one for me and that also did not materialize. This is me having contacted USA, India and Singapore over the net and Telephone.

There is tremendous pressure in Singapore with people with vested interests to suppress Linux including vendors.

The opposition I got in Singapore when I wanted to buy a bare bone computer without an y operation system was enormous.

The O.E.M guys has a laid back approach and convince the would be buyer to not to do so.

I circumvented this by getting the O.E.M guys to write on boot record only proprietary Microsoft allowed.

Then I bargained for O.E.M. price for the laptop which I should not declare here (but cheap).

Before I paid the money I pulled out a Puppy Linux Mini CD from my front shirt pocket (I downloaded it in Singapore) and tested it to see it can boot a Linux CD.
I am not stupid.

At the airport waiting for the flight I got my laptop running PCLinux-2009 and played with it till the battery ran dead.

Second incident was with Xandros.

They let you download the CD, once money is remitted to their account.

I almost did that through my bank but at the last moment decided not to do so.

My gut feeling was that for some reason or the other, if the downloading failed they were not under obligation to post me a CD.

In any case my experience with Telecoms is less than ideal.

What I am going to do then?

Mind you I am a difficult customer to satisfy under normal conditions but under special conditions I may be more difficult and fully irritated.

Both these approaches were to test the customer services of Linux that they promise ensure and not to go into commercial adventures.

In the back of my mind if I was satisfied I would have considered promoting one or two commercial Linux distributions in Sri-Lanka in a limited capacity.

I have lot of friends who are prepared to pay for a good service.

The failure on both accounts made me to divert my attention to testing Live CDs.

Then the incident with Mandriva free download changed my mind substantially.
When I downloaded the CD it contained more than the MiB quoted in the iso. This happened three times and I reported it to Softpedia but they were defending (Softpedia) their stance but I told them it was not the first time I downloaded an iso.

I told them I have done it over 200 or more times. Only thrice I had problems; one with Pardus another with Juliex and the third I cannot remember (may be ADIOS).

It is less than 2% anyway.

All these done under Linux box but problems were frequent when Microsoft was used and writings of the isos were done with Nero.

Neither Microsoft nor Nero would bother to do the job accurately.

The ploy I believed that Mandriva did was to discourage the would be newbie to download and to ask for a paid CD.

They can always say, your downloading was wrong to begin with.

Al these incidents point to the ploy "kill the enthusiasm of the would be Linux newbies / fans".
How they disrupted "holding of a workshop on Linux by me in Kandy (Sri-Lanka)" was evident by generous offering of alcohol to the vendors and organizers with political patronage.

What am I doing right now?

Testing all the Live CDs I can lay hands on (old, new and any live CD with Linux).

The experience with Freespire made me to rethink it again,

Read the comment on "Freespire-not in my list" for details.

My suspicions on Xandros, Madriva and SuSe are somewhat substantial now and may be even justifiable.
When crooks get together anything can happen in this world!

Anybody can take Open Source and make a rogue Linux distribution and claim that it is a genuine Open Source.

Richard Stallman is right and his fears are not unfounded.

Antix-72

This is the lighter version of Mepis and it is really good and fast to boot up.
It is less than 500 MiB and has all the utilities one needs.It is good for old computers with little RAM but does well in new computers too.
Well assorted and well done.

How to Improve Throughput?

Can anyone tell me how to improve the throughput with the Sri-Lankan Telecoms?

The guys at Telecoms are nice and they do all what they can do to improve but Oh Boy! there is some bottleneck somewhere.

I believe they are not provided with the proper infrastructure.

If one looks at the number of Ministers in Charge who have no knowledge or experience in the subject matter of interest and the number advisers (Ghosts in human clothing's) who hang around them with no credentials, it is easy to believe the plight now we are in.

But what can we do to improve it?

I think the answer is to turn to Linux.

Configure the set of servers to serve and avoid bottle necks.

The PCLinux-2010 I use has some software to bypass the bad servers outside and blacklist them.
With cloud computing in the horizon this scenario can be changed and should be changed.

1. Can anyone tell me if I try several downloads at once whether that will improve the situation?

2. If I have several downloads simultaneously ( at the same time) will the pulse transfer improve?
The different pulses should be able to send the impulses one independent of the other!

Some computer engineering may have to be introduced to improve, probably with the use of Linux.
Microsoft is a resource drainer for nothing!

MYAH-3-71

One of the best Live CD series for Multimedia and DVD editing.

Distrowatch says it is dormant but it is alive and well and kicking.

It comes from USA and has Blender to match Maya that comes with Microsoft.

What more should I say except praise
Can be booted with USB.

I used Unebootin to edit the grub file and it is running well.

My old computer BIOS does not support USB booting (cannot be booted with USB).

Does not give the password but I entered root as a user and typed myah and it did the trick!

It has many versions and except for dragon and mouse all the others take bird's name.They are flying high!
Well done boys and girls.
Give them a generous donation if you have dollars to spare.

Linux100-Freespire2.0.8-Not in My List

XandrOS has taken away some of the proprietary rights from Linspire and Freespire with probably, Java. Flash and Adobe Acrobat.

I have not downloaded and tested the 2.0.8 version but the 2.0.3 (old version) is good.

I will be with you soon having tested the Fiesta (2.0.8).

Xandros is based from Corel Linux and is doing a good job promoting the commercial version.

(I am not sure of this statement now that I have tested this version).

See Below.
One can pay a fee and download XandroS from it's site which is a good commercial ploy.
I hope they become successful in their endeavour.
P.S.

I do not know what to say.
I downloaded 2.0.8 and that got me to sign up with CNR which I promptly did.

Then when I wanted to activate the registration Firefox in my Linux alerted me that it is not a safe site and validity certificate has expired on February 2010.

I believe that XandrOs has some unhealthy alliance with Microsoft and the Live CD makes me to sign up with Hotmail.

I avoided both these traps and I believe some newbies have been douched!

I cannot recommend this Live CD and I have to thank Firefox for taking me out of it.It is marketed with Flash, Acrobat and Java too, thus violating copyrights.
Beware!
Do not even believe me what I have written so far on all the Live CDs I have tested.
Go only for a trusted Linux distribution with a home web site registered with GNU license!

It is slow. Very, very slow to boot.
Must be a Hybrid of Microsoft.

It's X-Windows sounds unfamiliar.

Anybody can take open source and make a hybrid and promote it as genuine Open Source Linux and advertise.

So Beware!
Ask a trusted Linux Guru before embarking.
Learn how to swim in this commercial world of duplicates and Hybrids.

I am not Guru but a Linux enthusiast!

Knoppix-ABC-StreamBOX-Update

Now I am nearing the last 30 or so distributions before reaching the century, it is high time that I talk about Knoppix.

I followed Knoppix evolution from its 3.1 version.

Mind you there was an attempt to produce a Sinhala version and when Anuradha went to support the then President during tsunami its progress abruptly stopped!

I hope the team would revive it.

Then I was new to Linux and I did know how to boot and prepare partitions. this was the on;y one I could mount and look at the file structure and the general organization of Linux apart from enjoying and using it.
It has spawned many version in many language.

ABCLinux is the Checkoslovian (I believe) edition base on 2003 Knoppix.

StreamBOX is a German version specialized on music.

I will add to this list as I find and test many of its versions.

Sugar on a Stick-S.O.A.S-Fedora13-70

This is one of the best light weight educational distributions that can be mounted on a Flash Drive (CD too).

This was built to supplement One Lap Top per Child project (hijacked and prevented from developing by proprietary distributions).

Mind you this has included Sinhala as a language and it is our job to provide usable Sinhala Fonts.
But Fedora community kept alive this promise and the version 13 edition is fantastic.
Preceding distributions were blueberry and strawberry.
It keeps the promise educational activities enjoyable and cheap and cost effective.
It is great guys and girls keep up the good work.

Hope ADIOS also take a fresh breath with fedora 13 edition.

Music-PureDyne-69

Another Live CD based on Ubuntu which has packed lot of audio utilities.
It is Xfce based hence, boots fast and has many extras.

Music-StreamBOX-68

Taking roots from Knoppix and Dynebolic, the German Team has produced another Live CD which has lot of utilities.
The credit goes to RoJo for initiating the trend.

Bit heavy on the RAM unlike the Dynebolic since Knoppix packs lot of packages in a CD but they expand when in live mode.

Have at least 2 GB of RAM.

Hope somebody males a English version.

Music-Dynebolic-2.5.2-67

This is one of the best live CDs I have.
It is the brain child of Denis the RoJo, whom I call the Bob Marley of Computer Music.
In a single Cd he has put everything including, music, video and graphic and the internet.
Believe me even the blender is included.

This the gold standard of computer music and it gets over 1000 points easily in my scale.

It has used the KISS principle working.
Keep It Simple and Small.

New edition has not come after 2007 November.

Proof of the pudding, when one keeps it simple bug fixes are a rare commodity indeed!
Only gorillas carry heavy footage like words 2007.
This is one of the best live CDs Linux community has produced,
Please donate generously.
It is coming from Italy an unlikely event given the ground conditions and underground world looking for money.

The Football Team of Italy should take a note of this.

How much volunteers can do without fanfare and money.
Money corrupts everybody including Footballers.
RoJo is a Hero.

KONGONI-66

KONGONI sounds Congo for me taking the name from the wildebeest, the mascot of GNU systems.

It is Slackware based and does not violate GNU agreement nor ship proprietary software.

It has gnash for Flash which is very very good alternative.
It has it own installer.

KISS- Kongoni Integrated Set Up System.

P.I.G.= Ports Installation GUI which means programs are downloaded as source files thus saving download time (it took me a considerable time to download KDE 4 to test) and packages are built automatically as in the habit of Debian tradition in the good old days.

Only blemish is that it forgot to mention the password for Kongoni.

I used my intuition to type live and it worked and saved me time.

These little things guys and girls always forget (Brainy Chaps are sometimes absent minded like me).
Well done.
I will like it because it keeps old and well tested traditions going on for the next generation to see!

Linux for Education

There are two additional things I want the Linux distribution to achieve.

One is excellence in games.

The other is excellence in education.

To achieve the first one needs lot of dedication.

I have delayed concentrating on the games for the time being with the exception of children's games with educational value.

But being involved in education it is my duty to concentrate on education first especially science.

There is a plethora of educational packages in Linux.

What is lacking is placing them in an organized manner with some specialization into categories.

But I prefer them to be categorized them into

1. Introductory

2. Intermediate

3. Advanced

4. Based on careers, Engineering, Medicine, Statistics, Physics and Chemistry, 3D Imaging (Blender) etc.

5. For sheer fun (not one's own career)

For children there are many ADIOS, QUIMO, KNOPPIX for KIDS, OLPS, Debian Edu, Ubuntu Edu etc.

Then again, these should be categorized according to the age levels of children and in increasing level of difficulty.

This is where games with educational value will shine.

I hope Linux guys with educational background would look into this area in a more concerted and organized manner.

ScientificLinux-5.5-65

There are only few Linux distribution that are developed for Higher Education in mind.
Based on Rehat Scientific Linux is one of them. Fermi Linux is another also based on Redhat.
Debian also has produced DVD for this purpose.Out of all the three in addition to DVD Scientific Linux has series of 5 CDs and a Live CD. I have downloaded the five 5.3 CDs and they are pretty good. I prefer the Cd series since downloading the DVD is next to impossible with our Telecom.
I tried someone from outside to (all little knowledge) download it and post it to me for the past 12 months and failed.

Then for my luck Scientific Linux 5.5 produced a DVD which was around 2 GB and with some difficulty after 3 days of trying I manged to download a full DVD and test it.
It is pretty good and stable with almost all the Linux packages necessary for educational purposes and if one is missing the facility for downloading it from a repository.

This is one of the best in the heavy weight category even though I prefer a lighter weight product.

PuppyLinux-Series-64

The best thing that happened to me apart from getting into Linux is downloading a copy of Puppy Linux.

Puppy Linux did everything that one needs in less than 100 MiB in its series 4.
It can be loaded into a Flash Drive, external hard disk.

Loaded to the RAM it does amazing things.
In its latest series Puppee has Google chrome and Puppy series 5 has net-serf web browser which is amazingly fast.

Puppy has spawned many other versions Wolfe and Quirk and many more.

SimplyMepis-63

Simply Mepis is one of the distributions I have installed in my laptop and desktop on a regular and permanent basis.
The other is Berry Linux. I must confess that I use them for demonstration of cute little distributions and not for daily work.

(Edited today 15-08-2010)
I think I have touched upon some intuition.
What is written below was before the download of Mepis DVD.
Thanks to Guys and Girls in Mepis for sweeper (which I call a Mind Sweeper).

Making me happy Mepis has introduced a package named Sweeper to clean up the system. It is a welcome I had being waiting for a long time. I had been doing this manually until now even with PCLinux.
This utility should be developed into MinD Sweeper for others to follow.

I use PCLinux (now 2o10-01) on daily basis and it does not give any problem because it has the nice habit of deleting unnecessary files in tmp on a regular basis (at boot up) and there is no clutter or clogging due to large log files (large log files that are essential for a server and should not be used obsessively in a desktop).

I of course on a regular basis look at the available memory after three or four downloads and having archived the images delete big files keeping the distribution robust and up to date.

Whereas my wife and daughter who also use two different (both PCLinux-2009) desktops on a regular basis come up to me saying that Linux sucks memory since they download many photos and the like files.

Luckily I have not given them the administrative rights and when things are bad in five minutes I clean up the unnecessary files and get the box running like new.

The cardinal mistakes everybody makes is that, not running the box over 24 hours at least occasionally and to let the Cron jobs run. that do the clean up jobs in servers and desktops.

This is something that Linux desktop developers should look at and develop cron jobs, akin to frequent savings in office utilities.

I think a utility of this nature is essential for laptops.

What they should do is to send a message at random fashion while when the desktop is being used and asking the user whether it is safe to activate the cron jobs (name it the clean up jobs) without compromising the downloading and downloaded files still in the tmp.

Sorry for the diversion but I feel this piece of advice is vital for the newbies.

Coming back to Mepis it is one of the best distributions in a single CD and has everything one needs and sometimes things that are missing in PCLinux.

That is why I use them for some special occasions.

Mepis has a new DVD and bit 32 and 64 versions, I am currently downloading them and write few lines about them soon (having tested them).

Mepis is something one ought to have to get the fresh and Debian feel like Morphis.

Morphix-62

Morphix is something that I downloaded for testing and then completely forgot about it.

I was looking for gamers which Linux even now sadly lacking and this was one of the few that morphed form Debian into a successful distribution way back in 2003 when live CDs were not in vogue and I was immature to Linux.

But it has everything I am (now) looking for.
Debian base and hence stable.
Morphed into modules hence assembling is easy.
It is light weight and boots fast with many options at boot time.

Problem is that it has gone into long five year hibernation.

According to Alex it is in coma.

Thank god he left all 4 versions in various iso sites.

I am going to download all now that without them me writing a review is absurd.

Morphix Team should wake up from slumber and it is a distribution which should not be in the attic.

It has all the virtues.

You know when some body wakes up from a coma it feels very fresh and there is lot of energy left.

My kick-ass mentality is the only way to make one realizes its potential.

I am waiting are you ready.

KDE-61

As I expected and planned preemptively before the download I will fondly name this as the Gorilla Edition.

It is beautiful but like a Gorilla at a dinner party has voracious appetite for RAM.

In my 4 GB RAM in the Laptop (IBM) it took the same time it took to write a DVD (4.3 GB) on my desktop (IBM) with I GB RAM (IBM-1.8 speed).
There is no improvement except the face lift and I prefer the old 2009 version which boots faster both on my Desktop and Laptop.

If one wants to bloat an image (literally and metaphorically) without any addition to the personality this the one that fits!

Sorry guys / girls I could have said something nicer but I cannot cheat myself.

Gorilla in the Dinner Party

Gorilla in the Dinner party is the best analogy, classification wise, I can give to Word 2007 for its craving for RAM when used.

Unfortunately Open Office also fall into this family of Human Computer Descendancy (H.C.D for short).

I thought of using the primate family for classification of X-Windows on desktops and accidentally found bonobo (Linux terminology) was one of our ascendant / descendant primates in evolution.

I am currently downloading KDE 4 and fondly name it as the Gorilla of the X-Windows family of descendants.

I have gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees to add to the family tree.

1. Bonobo is for Fluxbox.

2. Chimpanzee for xFCE

3. Orangutans for the LXDE (our closest ancestor).

This classification is better that the weight class category of human boxers and I will work on this quietly in my reviews in the future.
I welcome your suggestions for the family tree of descendants.

VLLinux-60

After many tries I mange to find a live version of Vector Linux.
Install versions I downloaded year ago did not live up to the reputation it claimed then finding difficult to configure graphic cards and the lot.I was thinking of writing something of all desktop versions active now but do not have a live version and want to include aLive and VL Linux but the things are moving fast and everybody now realizes of the live version (Zenwalk has only live version and that is almost one year old).

I could not find a live version of Salix.
Thanks guys and girls for thinking about this important product that we can use for promoting Linux globally without having an alliance to only one distribution.

My Motto is to have 100 in the same tradition as 100 fortune companies.
VL Linux has rectified most of its early deficiencies and now can claim its image as a versatile Linux distribution in one CD.
No Open office (K-iffice) a good starting point of convergence with other light weight categories.

KDE but it must produce a lighter version like LXDE.

In fact it has a lighter version which I downloaded today.
It is quite good,
Good work guys and girls.

WattsOS-59

Another Light weight (LXDE) distribution which is fast to boot on old and new computers.It is based on Ubuntu and has a rich repository.
Download and enjoy.

ADLC-58

ADLC is a German Debian based distribution for security and rescue purposes,
It boots on both English and German,
Even if you boot on it has enough English terms to get you around without rebooting.
That was something I liked very much since I am in the process of testing them.
I could find much literature on it by it looks like Xfce or Flusbox (very unlikely) environment.
Boots fast and sleek but I did like the black background (saving ob RAM, though).

Overall good distribution.

ExtiX-57

Based on Paldo, pure, adaptive linux distribution has almost everything one needs in a DVD with only 1.1 GB.
It has Skype and Wine which are value added additions.Boots fast and attractive.

It is for 64 bit Linux desktops and laptops.
Swedish in origin with English version and the installer is different to other distributions.

Good one to have if one is fed up of other distributions.

Fedora-56

Writing or avoiding writing something on Redhat or Fedora was not my intention.

I waited till I have scored, half a century (in short reviews) to write about Fedora.
It is a long story but I cut it short lest you get bored.

My entry into Linux started with Redhat 8.

Then I graduated to Redhat 9.
What was good about Redhat was it's book base.

Every time a new edition came, there was a plethora (pathological term for excessive congestion of blood) of books from little to big.
All those books were the only resources, I had and I never had a proper Linux Guru.
The plethora was a blessing in disguise to me.
Evey time I had a problem I could sort it out by reading a Redhat book.

Then they, the Redhat left me high and dry with the entry of Fedora.

I went up to Fedora 3 and I already had Mandrake installed in parallel with Redhat and decided to give a boot to Redhat and Fedora.

By then I have mastered Debian too (it took almost 6 months for me to come to term with it but it was worth the trouble) and booting Fedora and Redhat out was almost reflex action and automatic, with no regrets.
All the books were thrown to the attic.

Mandrake and Debian are well known for not having books written on them.
Debian, of course, because of its slow release cycles (of change) and the extensive online documentation (only a few access them for information) did not have to bother about the market forces but went on churning out (now over 42 CDs) package after package to boost the online community.

So I followed their progress to Lenny and when Mandrake became Mandriva I was fed up again.

I was left high and dry again.
I knew there were many equally frustrated like me out there.
I only knew that people who go with the market forces will fall with the market forces and I looked for new avenues.

I found an ally, that was PCLinux-2007 (of course Knoppix and Puppy Linux were there for my comfort).
I knew and believed that the next innovation has come to town (also the Flash Drive boot Pendrive Linux).
What happened with Redhat and Mandrake is now the dead past.

I thank them both for their diversion from the original philosophy.
They have given me the freedom of choice, lest I get hooked to any one of them for life.

This time not by market forces but my own choice.

Recent stock market crisis brought on by the greed is a reminder that profit making is not the only goal in life.

The sustainability in the minds of the users, here, there and all over that matters is the golden rule.
Few rich people or a few powerful politicians do not make this world better or make it go forward.

The rich philosophy of course will take us there.

I have already downloaded over 200 Live Distributions.
Picking the fifty (50) or hundred (100) is no mean task.
I have already 53 in the fold and Fedora 13-54 (CD) is also among them.
I suppose that I have made amends with Fedora, the CD I downloaded few days ago is good for any occasion.

Mind you I download every possible Debian both live and install (12 out of the 40 odd series is with me).
Why I do not write anything on Debian is, it is the God Father of Linux, anybody who wants to master should try Debian.

Live Debian is one among many and writing only about Live CD does not do justice to Debian Community!

CalculateLinux-55

Calculate Linux that comes from Russia has several versions.

Xfce distribution is cool, sleek and beautiful.

Like Epidermic it has included all that is necessary for an ordinary installation.
Its heavier version has more utilities but I like the Xfce.

It is Genitoo based and has KDE as X-windows.
Unlike ALT Linux it has better English language support.

Epidemic-54

Epidemic is a Debian based distribution with KDE.
It is a Brazilian based distribution with support for English.
In its (heavy category) 1.7 GB it has incorporated lot of games, scientific and specially DVD editing and presentation packages.
Everything one needs in an installation is there.
It something that you would like to have if you are not interested in adding utilities from the internet after installing.
Its installer is graphic intensive (easy for a newbie).

LinuxConsole-53

LinuxConsole that comes from France is one of the best Linux distribution for Multimedia.
It has several live CDS.
One for old computers with low memory with only 157 MiB.
One for Multimedia with 218 MiB which boots up fast and detects hardware and partitions well.
One Live Cd (2009).

Only difficulty I had was with downloading (it is fast).

The server abruptly terminates the downloading when the single is weak.

QIMO-2-52

QIMO is one that stands out when Linux distribution dedicated for education is brought up for discussion.
It is attractive and kids love it.

ADIOS-6.2-51

ADIOS Linux is a Fedora based Linux distribution slanted for education purposes.
It boots up and connects to internet fast.
However it is not possible to pack enough educational utilities in 700 MiB.
As a distribution it is stable coming from Redhat lineage.
But compared to Qimo Fedora has not produced enough educational utilities.

ToorOS-50

One of the best Genitoo based CDs which comes from Germany.

It has amazingly good throughput.

Like KDE which originally came from Germany (Knoppix included) the Linux guys and girls in Germany are very good and a well organized lot.

Thank to all of them letting the English users (failure of PCLinux-no international throughput) like me in the Asia have the opportunity to use the new developments from EU.

I had reservation on Genitoo Linux but ToorOS completely changed my mind.

Good work guys and girls.

I am waiting for Live CD from you (light weight edition), just like a-Live/ a-Linux!

Orion-49

One of the best Ubuntu based CDs which comes with many utilities that Backtrack has introduced.

It has amazingly good throughput.

Only blemish I found was that the password for live booting was missing.

I contacted the home (It has produced a very good PDF document) and got the details and downloaded the latest image and tested it.

All my earlier irritations (mostly due to poor internet connectivity) disappeared into thin air!
Good work guys and girls.

I am waiting for Live CD from you (light weight edition), just like a-Live, a-Linux!

OpenGEU-48

Another gem coming from Ubuntu family with E17-Enlightenment, X-Windows.
Breaking out of the boring brown Ubuntu it has produced an attractive live CD.
I have tried PCLinux-E17 (not quiet impressed yet) too but I have some reservation.

Both of them should look at Elive (which is the best Enlightenment package for me) and improve the out put of amazing E17.

Elive has a huge fan base due to change of its practice of letting the user uses ( test it) it before sending a donation.
This novel approach has made Linux very, very, user friendly.

Who will by a product without testing?

This is the failure on the part of Mandriva which make the user depend on its services and no feedback is possible.

Every new donation come from a happy Linux user but not from a grumpy user who had used Microsoft before (often a pirated copy)!
I hate pirates!
Mind you this comes from France.

U-lite-Ubuntu-Derivative-47

U-lite gets lot of points from me for its light weight edition, an Ubuntu derivative.
It is fast, sleek and instantly start many utilities on RAM.
On of the best in light weight category coming out of Ubuntu Family.
I have nothing but admiration for it.

aLinux-LiveCD-46

I downloaded at least 4 different aLnux CDs and none of them kept the promise the peanut Linux (small and efficient) from which it originated.
There was a problem with restart to begin with.
Boot loader was inconsistent and could not figure out my complex (not really) partitions at boot time.
I had to re-install my favorite light weight Linux distribution soon after.
I lost interest in it but quiet by accident I found aLive in the bottom of the list of 100 Linux in Distrowatch listing.
Finally aLive (aLinux) has produced a sleek live CD and I was quiet impressed by its performance.
It has packed lot of utilities in 700MiB which is an amazing feat while having KDE as X-windows(Graphic face is very attractive).
They have done lot of original work and what I like most is its packaging of its own creations under a-Linux/ a-Live.

Now I have cleared you from some of the early blemishes (still cannot restart after a session but with a few lines in the start up script one can rectify it- in the next release) you are going to ascend in the listing of Distrowatch in no time.

I am waiting to see your next release!
Good Luck guys and girls.

Mandriva-45

Finally I managed to download a correct MiB iso and test it on my laptop.
It lacks drivers, unlike PCLinux and does not support old hardware and it hangs up on my desktop. It is heavy and lacks games.
It is very slow to boot and configure.
K3B is missing and I prefer its 2007 edition from which it has not improved due to commercial interests, I believe.
I hope I am wrong.
Knoppix 6.2 is thousands time better with many additions including virtual box and games.