Best Live Linux For Christmas Giving?

trustedserf writes "This year I am including a bootable Live Linux CD in many of my Christmas cards. As I'll be making the copies myself I may even change the default desktop background to something personal, or Christmasy before running it off on cheap CD-Rs. The objective is to show people the easiest possible route to using a linux desktop so that they will be: A) Aware and B) Pleasantly surprised. About Christmas they may also have more time to try it out too. Naturally, I'm thinking of Gnoppix, but there are other options.. I use KDE, so I have to decide between it and Gnome. Bearing in mind my objectives, what distro would you choose. Also, importantly, is it possible any of them will damage their hardware (monitors with incorrect refresh etc.) I would be *very* unhappy if that happened. How many of them would fail to boot, leaving a bad impression? Which way would you go about it for maximum "WOW"."

sad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I can see why you have no friends.

best?

[Anonymous Coward]

windows-xp-professional-with-keygen.iso

other alternatives to Live CDs

[Ingolfke]

I'd skip the Linux live CD and give a charitable donation to The Human Fund [deadparrots.net] instead. It's much more meaningful.

My vote:

[po_boy]

Christmux.

well....

[SkankinMonkey]

Nothing says, 'I'm cheap' on Christmas like giving out burned CD's of free OS's! I bet you gave out bootable floppies of FreeDOS before you got a burner!

Re:My vote:

[ScrewMaster]

Multiplexed Christmas?

Oh, jeez.

[SamMichaels]

I'm jumping on the "this is dumb" bandwagon.

Give them something useful like Firefox. Leave a note:

1) Install
2) Use for 7 days
3) Send me a thank you card for saving you

Re:Stuff it with games

[Anonymous Coward]

Giving a CD full of free data is rather passe, IMHO

It is? So was once popular but now it's out of fashion? Really, I must not have picked up on that trend.

Or maybe you're using words that you don't know how to define! Always bad form, even for Slashdot. Hell, especially for Slashdot!

Re:Stuff it with pr0n

[Anonymous Coward]

If I'm on your christmas list, just fill it with pr0n intstead -- then the knoppix-feature of not touching the hard drive is pretty useful; so parents don't see the stuff in my browser history.

To spread Linux cheer...

[Ingolfke]

just put a message on the first boot screen that says they must send copies of the Live CD to 7 friends and family within one week or they'll have bad luck... like Timmy Tomelson in Desmodo, Nebrasksa who didn't believe the curse and was sued by the RIAA, for illegally downloading copies of John Tesh at the Red Rocks or Bostuli Smith of New Townslope, New Hampshire whose liquid cooled beowulf cluster sprung a leak destroying his systems, and rendering his attempt to compile a complete Gentoo distributin in record time (less than 3 weeks) an utter failure.

I'm hoping this will make it into the drafts of GPL 3 [slashdot.org].

Re:Set the Firefox default home page

[Anonymous Coward]

Christmasy? I know the perfect page:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/consumer/20041115/hol iday_guide-13.html [tomshardware.com]

Re:Command Line?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aunt tillie called and she wants to know what gzip -d some-huge-file-name-i386.2.4.22.tar.gz tar -xvf cd some-huge...make install etc...means. No, she doesnt, she just wants her "computer" back.

Re:Linux for Xmas?

[Ingolfke]

The RFC [faqs.org], the server [permeo.com], or the client [permeo.com]?

Re:What does linux have to do with Christmas

[HermanAB]

If one of my friends would use the Winter Solstice and Saturnalia to evangelize *anything*, they'd be spending the night in the manger... ;-)

Santa confirms it...

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess BSD is dead.

Re:Stuff it with games

[Anonymous Coward]

I got an AOL 9 disk for christmas last year from my cousin. Needless to say he's getting a present from my cat's litterbox this year.

Buy them a Mac

[Romeozulu]

Which way would you go about it for maximum "WOW"."

Buy them a Mac

Re:Think Again

[Lord Kano]

About 11 years ago, I got so sick of my relatives getting me clothes for Christmas that I declared that if anyone every got me clothes again, I'd reward when with an NRA membership next Christmas.

I have a family full of Democrats, I never got clothes from them again.

LK

Re:Think Again

[Anonymous Coward]

As a Democrat who hunts...
Can I have your address? I have a lovely cardigan that you *must* see.

Re:other alternatives to Live CDs

[mordors9]

Yeah, I can remember anxiously opening up a card from a relative when I was younger. This Aunt was always good for a check for $20. What do I find but a card that says she donated to some charity in my name. Not sure if meaningful was the word that sprung to mind.

Re:Stuff it with pr0n

[Anonymous Coward]

... so parents don't see the stuff in my browser history

Here's my christmas present for you: YOU CAN DELETE THE BROWSER HISTORY!

Merry christmas and remember to clean the keyboard.

There is a good point to be made from this-Coal

[Anonymous Coward]

"Still think it's not something you want to find in your XMas stocking?"

It's better than the coal I usually get.

Re:knoplix and frozen bubble

[Anonymous Coward]

actually i keep my pr0n on the linux partition. Don't need windows to allow installation of a dialer app for me. Also don't want the missus finding it.

Re:Think Again

[srand]

It subtley indicates that the sender knows something about Linux and wants other people to as well. If that's your idea of subtle, I would...oh never mind. Just give a stuffed penguin instead. If you want people to learn something from your gift...that's too much pressure to be putting on a friend for Christmas. It's like handing out copies of The Writings of Malcolm X as stocking stuffers.
"Hey Bob...did ya try out the new CD? Pretty cool desktop, huh?"
"Ummm...no. I, um...uhhhh,...."
"WHY NOT?"
"I don't know....Windows is just so much easier. I couldn't figure out how to make Linux recognize my flash drive, and Windows just detects it automatically, and...."
"WINDOWS?!?! Flash drive! That's so EASY! You should have CALLED ME!"

Re:Stuff it with games

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmmmm... Almond Roca.

Always a Christmas favorite!! :-)

Re:you must be the tech guy in your family

[Ratbert42]

The only way I could get any of my in-laws to run it would be to send it to them in a fake email that says they need to run it to secure their bank account password.

Re:Stuff it with games

[Anonymous Coward]

if you want some MAMEing, just give them coal.

COAL you fools, stuff their filthy stockings with COAL!

Re:Try Arse Eater Linux.

[Anonymous Coward]

Arse eater linux is nothing but a poor cousin fork of the original and best "Arse Linux"

The latest release of Arse Linux includes:
1) Their advanced partitioning and formatting tool 'Arse Wipe' for all of your disk customisation neeeds
2) The uber cool package manager "Up-ya-Date" to stay up to date with the latest software releases.
3) Includes thier new 'sniff and run' technology to constantly monitor the health of your arse installation.
4) Their incredible 'Arse Crack' firewall technolgy, to help stop those pesky intruders

For the inside 'Scoop' head over to www.arselinux.org

Re:Stuff it with games

[SpaceCadetTrav]

Yeah free old games! You know AOL mails me a cd full of free games every month, so it must be a great idea.

Re:Stuff it with games

[siskbc]

I mean, my 90-year-old granny's a Debian admin with her own website and broadband connection, isn't yours?

Fuck yeah she's a l33+ h4XoR! Biotch totally 0wnz0r3d my damn box last April fools. I'll get her good next year, packing her off to a home. See who's laughing.

Re:Stuff it with games

[Lumpy]

I personally plan on running around and shoving linux CD's down my friends and relatives throats. "Happy Holidays! hey where's your computer I need to do a favor for you. yes you will like it... no you WILL like it... I SAID YOU WILL LIKE IT NOW SHUT UP!"

I figured that a 14th century tactics that the catholic church used to convert "sinners" by use of Spanish Inquisition worked, so the same will work for linux.

REPENT! you love the penguin! REcompile that kernel! You are in dependancy hell because you have been forsaken! CONFESS!!!!!

just my little way of bringing a little of the cheer that I spread at work to my friends and family...

Re:Stuff it with games

[digitalgiblet]

I'm guessing his name is Albert Orville Lewis, and he always signs his cards with his initials: AOL. Man I've been getting this guy's CDs for YEARS.

Re:you must be the tech guy in your family

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried that, and it was slower than snail poop.

Now I'm curious. What's the ground speed of snail poop? And is there a difference between african and european snail poop?