28 January 2009, 10:29

Knoppix 6.0 released

Knoppix 6 default desktop Knoppix 6.0 has now been released with several new features and updates. The last update to Knoppix was in March of 2008 with version 5.3.1. Knoppix is a bootable CD distribution of Linux that incorperates automatic hardware detection. The CD can be used to demo Linux, as an educational CD, a rescue system, etc. It uses on-the-fly decompression so it can have up to 2 GB of data and software installed on it.

Version 6.0 of Knoppix is a complete rebuild from scratch and is based on Debian/lenny (draft). It incorporates a new boot procedure with highly parallelised hardware detection and configuration, using LXDE as the default desktop and includes the newly released OpenOffice 3.0.1. Also included in the release is Firefox 3.0.5. Due to space limitations on the CD some applications previously included have now been removed, however these removals are not listed in the change-log.

ADRIANE (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation and Networking Environment) is now included in version 6.0. ADRIANE is a "a talking menu system, which is supposed to make work and internet access easier for computer beginners, even if they have no sight contact to the computers monitor." ADRIANE 1.1 with speech support in text menu mode is set as the default so that blind computer "users can use the system without having to enter boot options blindly."

A new and updated NetworkManager (support for Debian /etc/network/interfaces enabled) is included along with the ability to create bootable memory-sticks from the CD using "flash-knoppix." The porting of Knoppix 5.x boot options and features has begun for the new system, but has not yet been completed and will likely be included in a future release.

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