Reasons to have a live CD

[aysiu]

Everyone who uses a computer should have a live CD.

If you have dial-up or no internet connection, you should order one (either the free ShipIt CDs (https://shipit.ubuntu.com/) from Canonical or some cheap ones from CheapISO.com (http://cheapiso.com/)).

If you have broadband and a CD burner, you have no excuse--get one right now if you don't have one already.

Not only are live CDs handy when you just want to try out Ubuntu before installing it (and I really think a good general guideline would be using the live CD for about two weeks before installing), but they can come in handy for other things, too.

If you ever want to resize your partitions or combine partitions, you'll need... a live CD.

If you ever screw up your Ubuntu installation so that Grub doesn't work, and you can't even boot into Recovery Mode, then you'll need... a live CD.

If your installation gets screwed (either Windows or Ubuntu) and you desperately need some files, you'll need a live CD.

In other words, live CDs are good recovery tools.

More importantly (and the Ubuntu live CD may not be ideal for this), live CDs are a great way to introduce your friends and family to Linux without affecting their computers. I would advise using something like PCLinuxOS or Knoppix for this, as they tend to have more stuff that's "impressive" to new users than Ubuntu's live CD has (proprietary codecs, for one).

Well... just an encouragement to those who have not ordered or downloaded a live CD yet--get one!

[khightower]

I agree, I have switched over 3 households with the help of the live CD. I show them fire fox, and open office, then its a done deal. This live CD gives good help to someone running an IT business

It's one thing to tell people about linux, and another to show them.

[confused57]

Great advice, I have liveCD's of Mepis, PCLinusOS, & Knoppix, as well as, various and sundry small livecd distros to check out other versions of Linux and use to rescue my system, if the need ever arises. Just ordered a Knoppix(name escapes me at the moment) book from Amazon.com just to familiarize myself what I can do with the liveCD, although there is an abundance of resources on the internet.

[polo_step]

Yeah, I build, service & upgrade a few boxes and I always have some bench Linux Live CDs to use for initial test, diagnostics & burn-in, especially for partial systems or ones leaving without an OS installed. I especially like the new super-fast live Japanese Knoppix that has the image built according to the most efficient way to read from a CD-ROM. That thing loads in a minute or less -- amazing! That's the first one I'll try.

Ubuntu 5.10 Live works on more systems with less trouble than any of the dozen or so Live Linuxii I keep around, though it's not as fast to load.

Though boxes never leave here with Linux installed on them, it's usually the first thing they run after assembly. ;)