First Five out of the first 10 and more

It is time for me to narrow down the first Five Linux Live CDs (Please note not Installable CDs) only.I have no intention of giving points or put it in any order except alphabetical.

However criteria for selection were based on few important qualities.

They include the followings.

1. Stable Boot Loader preferably GRUB.

2. Ability to live with other Linux distributions side by side (not only with windows). Black Track4 fails on this issue. I cannot have it installed along with other Linux distributions so that it is available for me in an emergency.

3. Good Partition Manger (which include other OS types)or a editor which does not cause problem with many other partition tools available in Linux.

4. Installation process easy and compatible with other distributions.

5. Security tools and firewalls and parental control.

6. Availability of root and user options (unfortunately Ubuntu fails on this issue).

7. Availability of commonly used general purpose utilities or the ability to download them as an open option.

8. Attractive but light weight (tone downed KDE would do).

9. CD burner ideally KDE.

10. an assortment of light weight games (including card games) or one single high features game everybody loves.

Unfortunately all of the Live CDs fail on this feature.

1. Knoppix
2. Mepis
3. PCLinux
4. Puppy
5. SuSe

I have all in my 80 GB hard drive.

6. Linux Mint
7. Fedora
8. Vector Linux
9. Berry Linux
10. Zenwalk

For specialists and Newbies with special interest.
11. Arch
12. Chakra
13. Granular
14. aLive / aLinux ? Peanut Linux
15. AV Linux
16. Yoper
17. GoBo Linux
18. Linvo
19. Dream Linux
20. Ubuntu / Lubuntu / Kubuntu / SuperrOS and the lot

Then the Light Weight beauties.

21. Slax
22. Imagine.
23. Peppermint
24. Element
25. gOs
26. Paldo
27. Unity
28. Untangle
29. Chameleon
30. Imagine
31. Igelle
32. Myah
33. Leenux
34. Netrunner
35.Exodus
36.ELive
37. ViperOS

Commercial
38. Mandriva
39. XandroS
40. ? Linspire ? Freespire

I have not include the educational distributions like Scientific Linux, Fermi Linux, ADIOS. QIMO. Knoppix for Kids. Kids Linux.

I have also not included the middle weight or the heavy weight like. Sabayon, Monomax, Openmamba, Calculate Linux, ALT Linux, Epidermic and Genitoo.

Cypersafety

I have been coining new words for English lately and the first is parafox.

If you go to Google and type parafox you will get to my blog spot and see why I coined it and it has of course outlasted its original intentions and the meaning.

Now this is used to spread the news of live Linux CDs.

The Cypersafety is next in the line if not already in the internet vocabulary.

I think the word Cyberbullying is already there and no wonder somebody else has used with the same intentions.

In that case he or she owns it.

I have being doing too much on Live CDs and I feel I must get back to the normal stream with more appeal since I am nearing the century of Linux Live CDs.

The recent incident of committing suicide of a young teenage girls In USA brings us to the reality and the cruelty with psychopathic tendencies and behaviour of the web users.

Web belongs to everybody and there is no control over it.

There is lot of pornography too, lot of luring and enticement are there.

I am not sure how we can deal with this problem.

This is happening in Sri-Lanka in most unlikely places and I do not want to mention them and open a can of worms.

The cybersafety to be established we need to understand the mechanics, insinuation and subtle ways the web designers, advertisers and search engine use the web to manipulate young visitor.

Even the words games, play and kids can be tagged to catch an unsuspecting mind.

The parents have a role.

Teachers have a role.

Owners of Cybercafes have a role.

Above all awareness and education have a role.

Lot of forensic work has to be done.

To begin this word has to be in the vocabulary and in circulation with parents and their mouths and the would be parents.

Recently I was seeing a mother buying a web camera for a child unsuspectingly.

The vendor did not ask the young child for what purpose he was using and no warning was given to the mother how to use it.

For the time being parents should not give a child all the hardware to be installed in his closed room.

Like in a office the computer should be in a prominent, public and open place even at home not in a closet of its own.

That is the first line of defense.

The second line of defense is Linux with Child Protection Utilities and time slot allocation for kids.

I'll write few more tricks parents can adopt once the word cybersafety is firmly established in the internet.

This is where Linux can contribute immensely by deploying cybersafety utilities.

Linux can do that.

5th September, 2010

Things not to do with YesLinux and Elastix

I do funny things once in a way.

Edited on the 10th of September
I was doing search some search on Linux distributions specialized on telephony for one of Linux fan since he had some problem with the telephone card.
The intrusion made me to delay search and I found many telephony related utilities in BackTrack4.
In any case I was clueless about telephone industry especially the digital side.
Initially I could not get anywhere and finally found AsteristNow and tried to download AsteristNow and found a rouge script was in my system.
I could not download AsteristNow (Centos based) which was a free distribution supported by commercial venders of telephone hardware.
My search ended up ultimately my son getting Peo TV installed and a free router installed adding two more ports to my hardware.

I am thinking using one of them as a firewall when I have time.

The list of distributions I found were as follows
1. AsteristX now defunct
2. Amatix Live and Office
3. Alpine
4. Elastix
I had to find most of them in the archives of Distromania.

The Elastix is based on Redhat and it ripped my hard disk in few seconds.

In that scenario YesLinux was better only during the time I was sipping tea it ripped off my hard disk.

So if you are not like me taking any conceivable risk to investigate Linux (except my life) do not venture into unknown territory like browsing into pornography which is rampant in this country including temples.

Beware if you do not have a Linux Guru (hard to find in this country) to help you out.

Only yesterday I downloaded YesLinux from (probably not supported by anybody currently) Distromania archives.
It is only 300 MiB and the core based on Debian,
I activated the installation process and went to make a cup of tea,
Knowing very well Debian gives a written warning before any action.
This devil of 300 MiB distribution erased everything by the time I sipped the cup of tea without any warning.

I aborted the process and restarted the computer to find there was nothing and no boot record at all.
I kicked a high note what the hacker could not do I did it myself.
Of course after the minor hacking incident I was testing few of the non-live installable CDs and there was nothing of note except 5 GB of Isos which I did not copy (CDs were burnt but iso were lost) but burnt everything including Samity Linux (this another distribution that looked funny).

Most of the time you do your own damage so do not blame others for it.

Well it was Friday night, I do not get Saturday Night Palsy or Dropsy and partitioned the hard drive and put installation into action and went to sleep.
In the morning it was alive and running well.
So even a cup of tea can be deadly to your computer.

If you do not want to be like me please make an effort to record all what you do in a little notebook and read all the instructions before you click the mouse button.

The commonest mistake I do is to forget the root password and sometimes the user password.

In that scenario you have to reinstall everything once again which I have done hundred of times.
Little discipline built into your work habits carry you a long way.

One could laugh at oneself, that is what I do.

It is no fun!

Trusted Dowload Sites

Until recently I trusted all sites with Linux Isos.
Since things are moving fast and there is no site that can be spelled as specialist (in my view) I should write this brief note.

I was looking for Big Daddy of PClinux and I could not find one.

With some difficulty I found a link with Softpedia and started downloading it.

I keep them as my archive editions.

While I was downloading, the site webmaster decided to delete the image since it was not accessed by anybody recently.

This type of sites you must never trust.
They are just delivery system without cross checks.

No checks and balances.

I was very disappointed and finally accessed PCLinux Website and a kind gentleman there gave me a site to download Big Daddy.

If you are looking for archives the best site is Distromania.

1. Distromaina

2. Softpedia which give up to 5 years back issues.

3. Distrowatch which gives you current ones with fairly extensive literature on each distribution,

4. Live CD list site.

5. Linux question site

There are many more sites but beware if they are not properly maintained or they direct you to other sites, lest you may be directed to a rouge site.

I was looking for peanut Linux and finally found at Distromania.
Peanut Linux is now aLinux and aLive.

Security Warnings with Live CDs

It is high time I should write something on security on Linux.

Ever since I started using Linux I never worried about viruses or crashes and hence I never had a firewall to protect me.

If at all I used standard security or none at all since I started downloading Live CDs.

Incidents developing over this year and events most recently happened were eyeopeners.

One needs to have a Security Policy for each desktop in installation.

I follow the Standard Linux Principles.

1. Never use a distribution that is popular but without root as a user.

Unfortunately this principle applies to Ububntu, too.

That is why I use Ubuntu Linux as demonstration only and never for daily use.

Su is not a good option for me but it is a server administrator's tool as far as I am concerned.

Desktop is not a server.

2. Second Rule is always work as a normal user and never as the root.

3. 3rd Rule is to use high security options and firewall.

4. 4th Rule is to use child protection since there are lot of pornography in the web.

5. Firth rule is when downloading use only a trusted sites.

6. Use light versions of Live CDs for only relatively miner work like accessing your email but not for downloading.

7. Once you are happy with the distribution use the standard version of that Live CD for installation.

I will add up to ten when I have given thought to other current issues and that crop up with time.

For the developers I have this request.

For all light versions of Live CDs please add some enhanced security package bundled into one pack with instructions, how to use them for newbies.

I started using Linux distributions because of their excellent security.

We must not relax on that principle since the hackers that Microsoft hire are at work like worms eating the essence, now and forever, and some of them are modifying Open Source Distributions and posting rouge Linux distributions on sites that are not maintained properly.

Freespire derivatives is one example only.

3DGLive-76

Another Live CD resting in the archives to be rediscovered.

It has amazing 3D desktop effects like in enlightenment (E17).

I cannot believe why it is in hibernation.

It does not take much memory but the subtle movements with the mouse is fun for children.

Even at my age it was pleasing to play with it.

This desktop should be adopted for a children's distribution for children to learn various dimensions in space.

Who is willing make the to plunge and make a distribution designed for children.

It will certainly improve the hand eye coordination in children to begin with.

This is the looking through glass project.

VideioLinx-2-1-75

Now I am nearing the last 25 of the century, I am digging to Linux archives and looking for lesser known but powerful Linux distributions.
Videio Linux is one of them.
I am writing this with VideioLinux on RAM.
It is packed with lot of audio and viedio but unfortunately there is no Blender.
It is less than 500 MiB and I should down load from the synaptic repository (I prefer they should have done it for me since our Telecom is slow).
Guess from where does it come from?

PCLinux Based and I hope PCLinux get busy with them and make a lowly distribution.

Accident or Coincidence

It is no coincidence that many window's users are inundated with problems of viruses especially if they are using pirated copies of operating system and software.

There is no guarantee that even if you buy a proprietary you are free of troubles.

I have gone through all these troubles when I was depending on others for service and I was relatively busy with my clinical and academic activities.

Hard drive crash with bad sectors, CD Rom / DVD Rom laser burnt outs, RAM burn outs and Graphic card burnouts and faulty CD/ DVDs and bad burns.

These incidents were common when using Windows especially with the liberal use of Nero and Linux did not have a good burn utility.

With K3Bcoming to the scene and the new kernels are up by the minute these problems are things of the past.

The problem with Windows and Nero utility and the hardware (Disk, RAM, Graphic Cards) is they are produced as OEM products and the operating system cannot synchronize everything in one go.

When I started using Linux Only these incidents dropped dramatically since kernel modules are updated regularly and the synchronization and use of processes (windows will never be able to perform this) and sharing of resources are managed excellently.

This is the plus side of Linux if you are a heavy user of resources, like me.

Even if you are not using computers heavily the bucks you save on hardware is enormous.So make an effort to learn Linux.

Recently I bought (it is time I should write a book) the Linux Bible by Christopher Naegus (I am now far ahead of him as far as the Live CDs are concerned.

There is no competition though and it is an excellent book.

In the back of the book it says "Christopher Nagus knows Linux and so you do".I really like that phrase.

Go and buy this Bible if you want a head start.

Mandriva-Archive in French-EduPack 1 and 2

I accidentally bumped into an Italian FTP where they had Mandriva (Mandrake 10-2004 official) archives.

It has two CDs named Edupack 1 and 2.

They are install CDs in French which I downloaded and tested and they are working.

If any one is interested in French distributions this is a good base to learn Linux.

Mind you, many of the very good Linux distributions are coming from France.

To name a few gCompris, Musix and Linuxconsole (for gamers and video) come to my mind.

Having said that many distributions are supporting French as a language.

SuSe-KDE-update

The hacker incident let me play with recent SuSe Isos.

KDE is packed with everything a desktop user needs.

Even though it takes a fairly long time to install and to configure (automatically) what it does best is downloading the necessary files while configuring which was a pain in the neck few years ago.

It still has a very well the organized desktop but launching a program and backing off is cumbersome feature for me.

It lacks lot of features present in PCLinux-2010 but compared to PCLinux partitioning utility its partitioning (graphic) tool has many features and the fstab configuration feature is excellent.
PCLinux has problems with other type of partitions at install time.
It was not a problem with earlier versions.

YAST (yet another system and teaching tool -I call it) is the best teaching tool for a newbie to learn.

Overall it is a good version if one is looking for a Window's like distribution.

But the Embrace, Expand and Explode (extinguish) policy of Microsoft might do some permanent damage to this system and kill it's spirituality in time to come.

Watch out for the 3Es.

(In science Explore, Engage (in a hypothesis), Explain, Expand, Evaluate the consequences).
Interestingly, our hierarchy in political circles use the same Es to extinguish opposition parties.

Bada Gannawa, Pumbanawa (bribing) and Pupuranawa (once the job is accomplished) Principle of Microsoft is truly working with vigour here.

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

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 blog spot 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 blog spot 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.