This is where I'm supposed to put a bunch of links related to the significance of Open Source, how the values of the Open Source movement are by and large the same as our very own Democratic party, how Open Source software provides security, stability, transparency, and openness while promoting sharing, a sense of community, and competition, all while being wrapped in a package that is fun to use, shiny, and insanely fast, but the blogroll to the right offers all that (mostly at the top and at the bottom) and this space is too valuable to waste.
Perhaps I haven't always been civil enough when pointing out how Open Source software, long a thorn in the side of a convicted monopolist, is a powerful movement that seeks to empower people to use older hardware longer, help provide an eco-friendly and low cost alternative to the offerings of said monopolist and its pals, while at the same time giving a chance for the poor in developing and third world nations, particularly children, a chance for better access to culture and education (thus empowering us all) and simultaneously draining the coffers of that monopolist for something that is much higher quality and more reliable; well that's all on me as an individual, and not reflective of the greater Open Source movement.
From here on out, let the civility begin, and I post links that are a bit less than civil, then don't click them. Whoops, that was fast. Well, meanness dies hard. 'Bashing' is just in my soul, I guess.
Seems like everyone is coming out with a liveCD or liveDVD these days, and in this case, it's CentOS, which offers a liveCD; if you haven't heard of CentOS, then don't feel bad--I hadn't heard of them until a few weeks ago, and I've been a voracious reader of DistroWatch from the beginning of my sojourn into the Open Source offerings--they are Red Hat 5, a commercial Linux offering (and a very profitable one at that), recompiled into a non-commercial version. Same exact product, but no tech support available.
CentOS is mostly used in server settings, so not sure what the attraction of this liveCD is to casual internet users, or how many will use it as their desktop OS, but if the test run I did in vmware-server (using 512M of ram) is any indication, more should try it out, if only for the speed alone.
It's a very speedy operating system, not as fast as my new Gentoo system, but still very swift and light, all in a GNOME desktop environment. It is packaged with a large number of firewall and security tools, and not a single game; there is the basic Office Suite, minimal graphics, media playing tools as well as apps for burning, ripping, and mixing CDs and DVDs--it is a minimal liveCD in the sense that Skype, Google Earth, and some of the other lovely packages are not included, but what they do include get the job done, and not having two of everything can sometimes be an advantage.
Oddly enough, while offering no games, they do have desktop effects (3D window compositing) on by default--so you can wobble your windows and spin a 3D desktop cube, all while running traceroute and setting up your firewall and other security tools--I guess admins need some fun, too.
After examining all of the boot options, this is an operating system to be used in a live environment, with changes saved to a temporary file, or alternately to a USB key--there is not an option to install the OS available, and the disclaimer states that the purpose of this liveCD, as well as the more obvious liveCD uses, is put out to show off CentOS to the wider world.
Being a non-commercial spin of Red Hat 5 (where Fedora 7 comes from), I would imagine that this would be an ideal solution for those who are looking for an ultra-stable, ultra-secure (SE Linux!) operating system, if it is for productivity, or server use. Not really a gamers platform in my view--the lack of any games kind of precludes that.
As an evaluation package, or to be used in a liveCD manner, this is a very well put together operating system that will absolutely run on slower machines with less ram; not in a league with PuppyLinux or Damn Small Linux, but quite a small footprint nonetheless.
A very fine offering, and just another example of how Open Source can provide an operating system that is cheap, stable, and secure in both desktop and server settings; why pay for the bloat and the spyware and other various malware, indeed, why pay at all. This operating system will save you not only time and money, but leave you free from the aggravation of what is supposedly the most secure system available now.
That being said, I'd like to offer a couple more points on my new Gentoo install--yup, finally got it working, and all I can say is Wow! And to all who counseled on trying out Gentoo (at whom I likely scoffed), I bow before you. This is by far the fastest system I have ever used, and that includes OS X; while it may lack the shiny luster of an Apple OS, it just blows the doors off of anything out there, no kidding. It's not even close.
The installer (or my stupidity, likely the latter) failed to provide me with a graphical interface after installation--either that, or I failed to properly add a user in the nice graphical installer; this was quickly remedied by logging in as root, choosing to go to a console and issuing the command 'startx', probably the only useful command I know outside of 'reboot'--this provided a nice yet minimal GNOME desktop environment in record time.
I didn't actually have a stopwatch out, but I probably should have--this was equally as fast in the start up time as a 50M PuppyLinux type of liveCD, and from there the fun was only beginning.
While scrolling through the typical GNOME menus, which open in a flash, I momentarily lost control of my mouse (due to astonishment) and strayed to another long drop down menu, which also just snapped open faster than anything I have witnessed in my many years of computing. Words fail me when trying to describe the speed.
While there is a graphical user interface for upgrading the system and adding the packages, I didn't have it, and since I had played around with SabayonLinux in earlier distro-hopping, I remembered the command 'emerge'; after reading the console instructions under emerge --help, I quickly added the Xfce desktop environment to the existing GNOME desktop; while it certainly lighter, I did not notice any particular speed increase--probably due to limitations of the human eye, and not any failing on Gentoo's part.
Just for the record, it is better to do the networkless install when choosing from the standard, networkless, or advanced; twice using the standard install it failed, due to the lack of establishing an internet connection. The upside to doing it this way is that it installs directly to your computer from the CD (no long download and compile times), and if you have a slow internet connection, ideal as well.
The networkless install took less than an hour, and startup and shutdown/reboot times are nothing less than phenonmenal--mp3 and video playing are ready out of the box, and flash is easily added, either through Kuroo (the GUI), or the console command 'emerge flash'.
An unsafe (but soon to be added package) is Beryl, of the 3D eye candy fame, once that is added, plus Flash, then there will nothing that Ubuntu or the others have to offer that can withstand this system. The long held claim of wringing out every last bit of speed out of your system is indeed true; if anything, it is understated. Compiling a kernel can take a considerable amount of time (as would Open Office), but for other, smaller packages, it's not even noticeable.