Live CD's - Sweet!

I love opensource projects - we've been using a bunch of them at work for almost two years now, and I think they're fantastic. Here and there, I've gone beyond small opensource Java tools (like Struts, Velocity, etc.) and delved a bit into the Linux OS.

Much like learning Java for the first time, there is a HUGE learning curve involved with Linux. Don't get me wrong, depending on the distro (that's distribution, for all you Windows kids out there - there are about a billion slightly different distros of Linux), some are easier to use than others. But installing them usually takes a bit of time. And, as we all know, time is money.

One of the toughest things for this meager programmer is to let go of his attachment to his machine. I have one main desktop, and I'm not about to go re-formatting the hard drive into partitions everytime I want to try a new flavor of Linux. What's a guy to do?

Live CD's! We're not talking Throwing Copper here; no, rather an entire OS contained on a bootable CD that doesn't install ANYTHING to your hard drive. Download the .iso file (which is usually just a single OS image file that most burn software knows how to handle), flip the BIOS to boot from CD-ROM, and you're golden.

I've downloaded live CD's from Ubuntu, Knoppix, Gnoppix, and Mandriva - and let me just say, they are sweet. You get a chance to play with the features from the OS, without fear of messing anything up (which, as anyone who has tried installing a version of Linux to their hard drive knows, is always a real fear). When you're done, shut down the computer, remove the CD, and you boot back up normal as pie.

These cd's are also useful for recovering data from hard drives that won't boot, and are great for public computers - like those at libraries, campuses, internet cafe's. Most of them come with the latest versions of Firefox, Gnome/KDE, OpenOffice, and more. Not bad for a >700MB disc, eh? Look them up, and give them a whirl. You just might have some fun, and learn something while you're at it.