334 Part III . Choosing (Bulletproof web design) and Installing a
334 Part III . Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution Seeing Where KNOPPIX Comes From KNOPPIX was created by Klaus Knopper in Germany. Knopper follows in the great tradition of naming a distribution using a part of the creator s own name with ix or ux stuck on the end. While a groundswell of interest and support has appeared for KNOPPIX in the past year or so, Knopper himself thinks of KNOPPIX more as a collection of tools he needs than as a full Linux distribution. Knopper works to provide only software that can be distributed freely, for both noncommercial and commercial use. So he doesn t even include some free software (such as browser plug-ins) that might restrict free redistribution, although he doesn t object to including non open source software that can still be freely distributed. There is no big company behind KNOPPIX, and development efforts continue to be headed up by Knopper himself. There are, however, many people who contribute bug reports and enhancements requests (see www.knoppix.net/bugs), and there are other developers who have helped create software specifically for KNOPPIX (in particular, Fabian Franz who, among other things, has contributed significant work to KNOPPIX installer-related features). The only official KNOPPIX Web site is Knopper s own personal site: www.knopper. net/knoppix. The closest thing to an official community is a mailing list (mailman. linuxtag.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-knoppix) set up at LinuxTag.org with Knopper s blessing. LinuxTag hosts the LinuxTag Conference and Expo, which is a leading Linux and free software conference in Europe. For the 2004 conference, LinuxTag produced a special edition of KNOPPIX on DVD that held more than 5GB of software. If you are looking for a way to get information and become involved with others who use and develop the system, the Knoppix.net site offers a very active forum and links to information about other KNOPPIX resources. It s a great place not only to get your questions answered, but also to find a wealth of links to FAQs, HOWTOs, and related projects. There is also an IRC channel (#knoppix on irc.freenode.net) and a Wiki used primarily to gather documentation (www.knoppix.net/docs/). If you are considering creating your own customized distribution, tools for that purpose are currently under development and may be included with versions of KNOPPIX by the time you read this text. In the meantime, you can check out some remaster tools at http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/remaster/. You can find out about versions that have already been created from the KNOPPIX Customizations page: www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/KnoppixCustomizations. Exploring Uses for KNOPPIX Because there is so much you can do with KNOPPIX, it s hard to narrow my mind enough to give a few specific examples. So, let s start with a few concepts to help think about what you can do with KNOPPIX:
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