In my post about Debian being my hard-drive install distribution of choice, I made reference to live-distributions. For those that don’t know, a live distribution is one that will run and function without being installed on the computer it is being used on. This can be very useful for troubleshooting or to recover data from a computer that will no longer boot.

You can boot into the live distribution (by putting the CD in) and then booting from CD. Most of these live distributions come complete with network support and a graphical user interface.

One of the most robust live distributions available today is Knoppix, which is based on Debian. Knoppix is available in both CD and DVD versions. The DVD version has more packages, games, and other tools that can be used, but the CD version is smaller and easier to download and can also be used on a wider variety of machines. Knoppix is probably my favorite live distribution and I always have a copy lying around or with me, because you never know when you might need it.

Other live distributions that I am fond of are Slax and Damn Small Linux. Damn small Linux is handy because it is a 50 Megabyte download and can be installed on a flash drive, or just carried on one and “booted” into using an emulator from any running Windows installation. This can be handy if you are on a Windows box, but do not want to use it’s installed browser or leave any tracks behind (anything done in the emulator does not leave tracks in the computer’s logs or history files.

What is your favorite live distribution?