Comparison of Linux Live Distros
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A Live Distro is a Linux distribution that is executed upon boot, without installation on a hard drive. Typically, it is stored on bootable media such as a CD-ROM (Live CD), DVD (Live DVD), USB Flash Drive (Live USB), among others.
[edit] Comparison
| Distro | Latest Release Date |
Supported architecture(s) | Size | RAM Use | Boots from CD-ROM |
Boots from DVD | Desktop environment | License | Target audience/purpose | Based on | Working state | Installable Live CD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALT Linux Desktop or Lite | 2007-12-27[1] | x86 | <700MB | Yes | Yes | KDE or Xfce | GPL and other licenses | Desktop (and rescue) | ALT Linux | Current | No | |
| Arudius | 2005-11-22? (first) | x86 | <700 MB | Yes | Yes | Fluxbox | Various | Security (Penetration testing and vulnerability analysis) | Slackware | Current | ||
| Archie | x86 | Yes | Yes | Xfce | Various | Desktop | Arch Linux | Current | ||||
| Ark Linux | x86 | <700MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | GPL and other licenses | Desktop (and rescue) | Current | ||||
| Austrumi | x86 | 50 MB | Yes | Yes | Metacity | Various | General; system rescue | Slackware | Current | |||
| BackTrack | 2008-06-19 (3) | x86 | ~700 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE, Fluxbox | Various | Security (Penetration testing and vulnerability analysis) | WHAX, Auditor Security Collection | Current | ||
| Big Linux | x86 | ~700 MB | Yes | No | KDE, TDE | Various | Full-featured desktop | (K)Ubuntu | Current | |||
| CentOS | x86 | ~700 MB | Yes | Gnome | GPL | Redhat | Current | Yes | ||||
| Damn Small Linux |
2008-08-10 (4.4.4) | x86 | 50 MB | 8~16 MB | Yes | Yes | Fluxbox, JWM | Various | General | Debian | Current | Yes |
| De-ICE.net Live CD | x86 | <400 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | GPL and other licenses | Security (Penetration test training targets) | SLAX | No longer updated | |||
| Debian Live | x86, amd64 | 50 MB - 5 GB | Yes | Yes | Various | GPL and other licenses | General | Debian | Current | Yes | ||
| Dreamlinux | 2007-01-05 (2.2) | x86 | 700 MB | Yes | Yes | Xfce | GPL and other licenses | General | Debian | Current | ||
| dyne:bolic | 2007-03-23 (2.3.52) | x86 | ~650 MB | Yes | Yes | Xfce | Various | Multimedia (audio/video) | Current | |||
| Elive | x86 | ~700 MB | Yes | Yes | Enlightenment | GPL and other licenses | Multimedia, Desktop, General purpose | Debian | Current | |||
| Feather Linux | x86 | <128 MB | 48~96 MB | Yes | Yes | Fluxbox | Various | General | Debian | Current | ||
| Fedora Live CD |
x86 | 683 MB | 256~1024 MB | Yes | Yes | GNOME, KDE | Various | General | Fedora (Linux distribution) | Current | Yes | |
| Feraga | x86, amd64 | 256 MB and up | No | No | Any | Various | USB Flash install, Private Workstation, General, System Rescue | Debian | Current | |||
| Finnix | 2008-06-28 (92.0) | x86, amd64, powerpc, powerpc64 | 100~130 MB | 28~64 MB | Yes | Yes | None | Various | System rescue, general | Debian | Current | No |
| Freespire | 2007-11-30 (2.0.8) | x86 | <700 MB | 128~768 MB | Yes | No | KDE | Various | General | Ubuntu | Current | Yes |
| grml | x86, amd64 | 700 MB and ~58 MB | Yes | Yes | Various (Fluxbox, Wmii, fvwm-crystal,...) | GPL and other licenses | General, Sysadmin, Texttools, System Rescue, USB install | Debian | Current | |||
| iloog | x86 | ~700MB | Yes | No | Fluxbox | Various | Scientific | Gentoo | Current | |||
| Inquisitor | 2008-07-06 (3.0-rc2) | x86, x86_64 | ~210MB | ~96MB | Yes | Yes | None | GPL3 and other licenses | Hardware diagnostics, stress testing and benchmarking | ALT | Current | Yes |
| Kanotix | x86 | ~700 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | Various | General | Debian | Current | |||
| Kcpentrix | x86 | ~1 GB | No | Yes | KDE | Various | Security (Penetration testing and vulnerability analysis) | Slax 5 | Current | |||
| Knoppix CD edition |
2007-01-04 (5.1.1)[2] | x86 | 700 MB | 128~320 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | Various | General; system rescue | Debian | Current | |
| Knoppix DVD "Maxi" edition |
2008-03-26 (5.3.1)[2] | x86 | 4.7 GB | No | Yes | KDE | Various | General; system rescue | Debian | Current | ||
| Knoppix STD | 2004-01-24 (0.1) | x86 | 497 MB | Yes | Yes | Various | Various | Security (Penetration testing and vulnerability analysis) | Knoppix | No longer updated | ||
| Gnoppix | x86 | 4.7 GB | No | Yes | GNOME | Various | General; system rescue | Debian | No longer updated | |||
| gOS | x86 | ~700 MB | Yes | Enlightenment | GPL and other licenses | Lightweight General desktop | Ubuntu | Current | Yes | |||
| Linguas OS | x86 | <600 MB | Yes | Yes | fluxbox. | GPL and other licenses | Industry specific for translators, desktop use | PCLinuxOS | Current | |||
| Linux Mint | 2007-11-15 (4.0) | x86 | ~700 MB | 256~768 MB | Yes | Yes | GNOME (KDE and Xfce versions are also available). | GPL and other licenses | General, desktop use | Ubuntu | Current | Yes |
| Mandriva One | 2007-10-08 (2008) | x86, amd64 | ~700 MB | 128~768 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE or GNOME - depending on version used. | GPL and other licenses | General, desktop use | Mandriva | Current | Yes |
| Mandrake | ||||||||||||
| MCNLive | x86 | ~350 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | Various | General; USB Flash install | Mandriva | Current | |||
| Morphix | x86 | 700 MB | Yes | Yes | various | GPL and other licenses | General | Debian | Current | |||
| Musix | x86 | ~700Mb | Yes | Yes | IceWM | GNU | musicians, dj's | Debian | Current | |||
| NimbleX | 2007-05-30 2007v2 | x86 | <200 MB | 96~320 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE, IceWM and Fluxbox | Various | General; System Rescue; LAN Boot; USB Install | Slackware | Current | |
| nUbuntu | x86 | ~265 MB | Yes | Yes | Fluxbox | Various | Security (Penetration testing and vulnerability analysis) | Ubuntu | Current | |||
| openGEU | 2008-01-25 (7.10) | x86 | ~700 MB | 192~512 MB | Yes | Enlightenment | GPL and other licenses | Lightweight General desktop | Ubuntu | Current | Yes | |
| openSuse | 2007-10-04 (10.3) | x86, | ~700MB | 128~768 MB | Yes | Yes | GNOME, KDE | GPL and other licenses | Desktop, General, Multimedia, Development | Current | Yes | |
| Oralux | 2006-05-08 (0.7 alpha) | x86 | <500 MB | Yes | Yes | Audio desktops: Emacspeak, YASR, or Speakup | Various | Blind and visually-impaired users | Debian | No longer updated | ||
| Parted Magic | x86 | 30 MB | Yes | Yes | XFCE | Various | Linux Live CD/USB/PXE with its elemental purpose being to partition hard drives. | Current | ||||
| PCLinuxOS | 2007-05-19 (2007) | x86 | between 130MB and 700 MB | 96~512 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | Various | General | Mandriva | Current | Yes |
| PCFluxboxOS | 2007-11-02 (1.0) | x86 | <250 MB | 64~320 MB | Yes | No | Fluxbox | Various | General | PCLinuxOS | Current | |
| Phlak | 2005-05-07 (0.3) | x86 | > 500 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | Various | Security | Debian | No longer updated | ||
| Puppy Linux | x86 | 70 MB (standard edition) | 32~192 MB | Yes | Yes | JWM default, others possible | Various | Lightweight General Desktop | Current | Yes | ||
| pure:dyne | x86 | 684 MB | Yes | Yes | Window Maker | Various | Multimedia (audio/video) | dyne:bolic | Current | |||
| Red Hat Linux | ||||||||||||
| Sabayon Linux Live CD | x86, x86_64 | ~695 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE, Fluxbox | Various | Desktop, General, System Rescue | Gentoo | Current | |||
| Sabayon Linux Live DVD | x86, x86_64 | ~4400MB | No | Yes | KDE, GNOME, Fluxbox | Various | Multimedia, Desktop, General, System Rescue | Gentoo | Current | |||
| SAM Linux | x86 | 683 MB | Yes | Yes | Xfce | Various | General | PCLinuxOS | Current | |||
| Sauver | x86 | <250 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | GPL | General, System Rescue, Recover Deleted Files | Slackware | Current | |||
| sidux | 2007-12-26 (2007-04.5) | x86, x86_64 | 446 / 1446 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | GPL | Desktop, General, Linux Live CD/ Live DVD, USB install | Debian | Current | Yes | |
| SimplyMEPIS | 2007-12-23 (7.0) | x86, amd64 | 706 MB | 128~512 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | Various (incl. Sun java JRE) | General Desktop, system rescue, recovery | Debian | Current | Yes |
| SLAX | 2008-05-09 (6.0.7) | x86 | <200 MB | 96~320 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | GPL | General | Slackware | Current | |
| SliTaz GNU/Linux | 2008-03-22 (1.0) | x86 | 25 MB | Yes | Yes | JWM default, also Openbox, Enlightenment | various | General | Current | Yes | ||
| SystemRescueCD | 2008-06-30 | x86, sparc, PowerPC | ~160 MB | Yes | Yes | CLI | GPL and other licenses | System Rescue | Gentoo | Current | Yes | |
| Trinity Rescue Kit |
x86 | ~104 MB | Yes | Yes | CLI | GPL | System Rescue | Mandriva | Current | |||
| Ubuntu | 2008-04-24 (8.04) | x86, amd64 | ~700 MB | 384 MB | Yes | Yes | GNOME | GPL and other licenses | General desktop | Debian | Current | Yes |
| Edubuntu | 2007-10-18 (7.10) | x86, amd64 | ~700 MB | Yes | Yes | GNOME | GPL and other licenses | Education | Ubuntu | Current | ||
| Kubuntu | 2008-04-24 (8.04) | x86, amd64 | ~700 MB | 384 MB | Yes | Yes | KDE | GPL and other licenses | Full-featured desktop | Ubuntu | Current | Yes |
| Xubuntu | 2008-04-24 (8.04) | x86, amd64 | ~700 MB | 256 MB | Yes | Yes | Xfce | GPL and other licenses | Lightweight General desktop | Ubuntu | Current | Yes |
| Vacarm Linux | x86 | ~600 MB | Yes | Yes | GNOME | GPL and other licenses | Security | Ubuntu | Current | |||
| Distro | Latest Release Date |
Supported architecture(s) | Size | RAM Use | Boots from CD-ROM |
Boots from DVD | Desktop environment | License | Target audience/purpose | Based on | Working state | Installable Live CD |
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ CD images for the current 4.0 releases of ALTLinux Desktop and Lite
- ^ a b Index of ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/knoppix/ (latest CD version was KNOPPIX_V5.1.1CD-2007-01-04-EN.iso, latest DVD is KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso)
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