Web server - 330Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionCreated by
330Part IIIChoosing and Installing a Linux DistributionCreated by Klaus Knopper, KNOPPIX is a bootable Linux that includes a nice selec- tion of open source software. Although it can also be delivered on DVD (as we didwith this book) or other bootable media, the distribution is made to fit on a single, bootable CD. KNOPPIX is often considered to be the best bootable Linux available. Looking Inside KNOPPIXKNOPPIX boots right up to a full-featured desktop system complete with hundredsof desktop applications. It includes some powerful server and power user features. In fact, there are so many features, I won t even try to mention them all here, butjust take a look at the following list of some of KNOPPIX s major components: If you find that you are missing the NVIDIA graphics driver, Flash plug-in, or QuantaHTML editor you need, don t worry. KNOPPIX includes a KNOPPIX-Live Installer thatlets you install selected software features from the network and run them live fromKNOPPIX. I ll describe the KNOPPIX-Live Installer later in this chapter. .KDE A full-featured KDE desktop (which runs on the X Window System) thatincludes tools for configuring the desktop and a bunch of applications tailoredfor the KDE environment. (See Chapter 3 for descriptions of KDE.) If you prefer the GNOME desktop environment, there are several customized versionsof KNOPPIX that include GNOME. Most notable is the Gnoppix (www.gnoppix.org) distribution, which uses GNOME as its default desktop. .OpenOffice.org The OpenOffice.org suite of office productivity tools so thatyou can create documents, graphics, presentations, spreadsheets, and mostanything you expect to be able to do with office applications. With KNOPPIX, Ican give a presentation created in OpenOffice.org software anywhere that Ihave access to a PC. (See Chapter 20 for descriptions of OpenOffice.org pro- ductivity applications.) .Internet tools Web browsers (Mozilla browser, Konqueror, and Lynx), e-mailclients (Kmail, Mozilla mail, and mutt), a chat client (XChat IRC), a news reader(KNode), an instant messaging client (Gaim), and many more applications forusing the Internet. (See Chapter 21 for descriptions of popular Web browsersand mail clients.) .Multimedia software Applications for playing music (xmms and KsCD), edit- ing music (Audacity and Rosegarden), watching TV (xawtv), playing movies(xine), working with graphics (GIMP and xscanimage), using Webcams (gqcam), and displaying images (KView and Kuickshow). (Chapter 19 covers music andvideo players.) .Games A few dozen diverting board games, card games, strategy games, andpuzzles to play. Try Potato Guy to keep the young ones busy, and Kasteroidsfor the older kids. (Chapter 22 talks about KDE and other games that you canrun with KNOPPIX.) NoteNote18_