Introduction


Years ago, Bob heard about Linux, and he wanted to give it a whirl. It sounded interesting: open source, free, powerful, stable. So he asked Alice, a friend of his who uses Linux, "Hey, I'm running Windows right now, and I want to keep running it, but how do I try Linux out for myself?"

"Well," she said, "we can either back up your whole hard drive, wipe it, install Linux, let you try it out, and then remove Linux and put Windows back on, along with all your data, or "

"Whoa! I just want to try it out, not turn this into a project! Isn't there an easier way?"

"OK," she said, "we can set up your machine to dual boot Windows and Linux. We'll resize your hard drive partitions—oh, yeah, we need to buy some software to do that, about $50 or so—and then we'll install Linux in a new partition, and then when you turn your box on, you can choose either Windows or Linux. How's that?"

"That sounds like a lot of work too. I just want to play with Linux. I don't want to commit to it. Is there anything else I can do?"

Alice thought for a moment. "No, not really."

Bob walked away, another potential Linux user that remained just that: potential.

There had to be a better way. Soon enough, there was, and there was much rejoicing in Linuxland. That rejoicing has spread over the years, and now more and more computer users—many of them living outside Linuxland in Windowsworld—are discovering that there's a software tool available that enables them to try out Linux painlessly, and do a whole heck of a lot more besides. With this fantastic tool, users can do any of the following:

  • Recover precious data from a machine (running Linux or Windows!) that won't boot

  • Test the security of a machine, a local area network, or a public server

  • Play games, listen to music, view videos, or look at pictures

  • Surf the Web, shoot off emails, instant message pals, and download software

  • Fix common problems with computers running either Windows or Linux

  • Create their own customized version that suits their needs perfectly

Best of all, this tool has all the characteristics of the best that the world of Linux has to offer: it's free, it's awesomely innovative and astoundingly clever, and it's flat out fun. In addition, for those of us who love (and live) to learn, by combining the brainpower of a dedicated organization of volunteers all over the world, there's always something new and exciting to learn about this software.

The name of this tool, of course, is Knoppix.

About This Book

Hacking Knoppix is your guide to the wonderful world of Knoppix. The authors have been using Knoppix for years, in all sorts of various ways, and we all jumped at the chance to share our experiences and hard-won knowledge with you. We hope you find Hacking Knoppix interesting, inspiring, and useful.

You don't need to read this book straight through from beginning to end. Instead, feel free to jump around from chapter to chapter and dive into the stuff that interests you first. Just be sure to try out the stuff that's covered. It'll make this book more enjoyable, and you'll learn Knoppix a lot faster and more effectively.



Hacking Knoppix
Hacking Knoppix (ExtremeTech)
ISBN: 0764597841
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 118

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net