knoppix is a great way to try linux, go for it.

Realize that the default GUI in different distributions look vastly different from what knoppix has (knoppix is a little less polished), but the applications are all the same and it doesn't require any pain of installation.

i have dail-up so i'm going to have to find a way to download it, hopefully my firends dsl connection.

Thanks

Knoppix is very good at recognizing hardware, so if you are not sure what drivers to use for something, boot knoppix and see what it did (lsmod). The disk is quite full, so be sure to do the checksum check before burning the CD; otherwise you may waste a few blanks. If you have a slow link, cheapbytes will sell you a Knoppix CD for $4.99. Knoppix also can be used as a rescue CD, although it boots a bit slower than the regular ones. It is definitely fun to try out!

Mike

Knoppix rocks.

Its autodetection routines don't work too well with the touchpad of the Inspiron 8200 though. I modified my Knoppix CD to add a bootline option that forces X configuration for the touchpad.

Recent KNX versions might have fixed this. It's relatively minor.

Also, getting Knoppix to support 3D acceleration on NVidia chipsets requires a major remastering job to shoehorn the binary NV drivers in.

I have a Knoppix DVD that allows me to play Quake 3, UT, and UT2K3 from one disc on any machine with a DVD drive, including my 8200. :)

I use Debian on my i5100 , get everything supported, even wrote an article on how to get Linux installed and it is on tuxmobil.org now . The only thing I can't get working is games like Quake3, Tuxracer won't recognize any of the mouse devices. Not sure if it's a X problem (running 4.2) or a hardware fault.