Well, finally some success in the liveUSB department; Stux 1.0 was the distro to deliver the goods. Stux is a Slackware based distro that uses the Knoppix liveCD implementation developed by Klaus Knopper. It provides a fast boot, rescue options if you've trashed your prior install, as well as the option to install to hard disk or a USB flash drive.
I've been waiting for this, and since Revisor seems to have taken a step backwards with the latest update (today), I was eager to see what Stux had to offer. Though several individuals have reported success on using Revisor in the Fedora forums I have yet to do so, and the update now does not offer the choice of building a liveUSB; the check box is still there, but it's grayed out and not available.
Following startup, you enter the Stux control center and choose install to USB key; I did just that, and the installer found my 1Gb flash drive and began installing after a brief warning that it would erase the contents of the drive. From clicking OK to the system finally unmounting the drive took a grand total of eleven minutes, and upon re-inserting the flash drive, I was able to take a look at what it had installed.
Just to be sure that it did its work successfully, I restarted my test machine and was able to boot up through the liveUSB drive, quite handy if you have a computer with a broken CD drive or simply don't want to lug around an easily damaged/scratched CD.
One other option in the install column of the Stux control center was remaster live ISO; one that I have yet to try out, but an interesting option nonetheless. Presumably you could add some of the non-free bits (i.e., proprietary codecs,etc.) and then hand out the CDs for folks to install a fully out of the box working distro, no configuration needed. Some of the posters at Fedora forums are talking about doing just that, so you should see some Revisor re-spins coming out in the next few days that have that option built in. Pretty nifty.
I know this news will likely be greeted with a yawn by the PuppyLinux and Damn Small Linux users that have had this for ages, just wanted to share how easy this was to do through a graphical interface, something that I hope Revisor will eventually deliver.
Stux is nice for a lightweight Slackware based rescue liveCD, but I couldn't see using it as my day to day OS, i.e., installing to my hard disk and using it that way. Still way too much to discover in Fedora 7.
In other Linux news, Parallels 3.0 has been released; it offers Mac/Intel users the ability to run Windows/Linux in a virtual environment. The price is $80, though there is a 15-day trial run available. Nice if you've got the dinero. For the moment, I think I'll stick with VMware; it's free, and getting better all the time. Besides, why would I want to run Linux in a virtual machine, when I've got it going on live?
And if you want a glimpse of the future (?) of the internet, then go to Wubuntu, short for Web Ubuntu. Ummm, as YetiMonk points out in comment below, this reads your cookies, so best to clean them out or not use the web browsing feature. Truly a look at the future. Sorry it's so grim.