The best known (and perhaps most mature) of all live Linux distributions is Knoppix from Klaus Knopper.

Knoppix gained rapid attention when introduced because it actually worked. The theory of using read-only media and a Ramdisk to run Linux is easy enough to grasp, but Knoppix went a step further with powerful hardware detection and automatic configuration.

Knoppix stumbled on our test machine with the nForce motherboard chipset, but booted fine on other systems, dropping into the crisp Knoppix-themed KDE 3.1 desktop.

About 2GB of software is crammed into the 700MB Knoppix image, and decompressed on the fly as required. It's impressive and makes for a fully featured working environment. Everything from the boot loader to the desktop is cleanly presented.

The default desktop environment is KDE, and both KOffice and OpenOffice are included for office work, and Konqueror and Mozilla for web browsing. Other software ranges from the MySQL database platform, including server, and a digital planetarium.

Documentation for users and would-be customisers is strong, with a well developed user community. Knoppix's Debian roots show through with the omission of some packages considered 'non-free' by the Debian GNU/Linux project, but overall it's a coherent distribution. The hardware detection isn't head and shoulders above the alternatives, but anyone considering a live Linux setup should take Knoppix for test drive.

Gnoppix 0.6.0-rc2
Despite the similar names, Gnoppix and Knoppix aren't part of the same project, although they come from the same evolutionary tree. Like Knoppix, Gnoppix is based on the Woody build of Debian GNU/Linux, but instead of KDE uses Gnome (and only Gnome) as its desktop environment.

Booting into Gnoppix is fairly quick and the hardware detection does a fair but not impressive job; our display defaulted to only 1,024 by 768 and, although the Ethernet adaptor was ostensibly detected and configured correctly, Mozilla couldn't connect to the internet. The version under test is prerelease, but other distributions did a better job of setting up.

The Gnoppix desktop environment is Gnome 2.4. OpenOffice is the only office suite provided, with Evolution 1.4 as the default mail client and Mozilla as web browser. Utilities are provided for setting up a persistent home directory. In addition to the staple items there's a wide range of utility software from the Debian archives.

Gnoppix is a mixed bag. The features and included software are good, but the packaging is rough around the edges. Other live distributions are cleaner and provide more options for desktop environments, browsers and office suites. However, if you're a big fan of Gnome and aren't dependent on totally automatic configuration, Gnoppix may be for you.

Morphix 0.4.1
A Knoppix descendant, Morphix offers a smaller download and a modular selection of applications. Variants are offered featuring Gnome, KDE or a Light option. The big selling point of Morphix is the ease with which you can roll your own setup. The user community is active and, in addition to documentation on how to customise your setup, the Morphix site includes links to many different specialist builds.

The Light GUI variant boots the quickest, although its startup is still slow compared with a stripped-down hard disk installation. The interface is a clean desktop with a launcher bar across the bottom of the screen.

Morphix KDE ships KDE 3.1 as its desktop environment and the KOffice suite. Morphix Gnome, on the other hand, goes for Gnome and OpenOffice. Otherwise the setup on each is similar, although the desktops themselves are distinct.

For gamers, the Morphix Gamer setup offers a neat out-of-box solution, with the lightweight IceWM desktop handling X-Windows duty, and a slew of games installed a couple of clicks away in the menu.

The documentation for Morphix makes it clear that the whole project is a work in progress, and shouldn't be considered a finished product. It is, though, under active development and we found it was well enough advanced for the enthusiast crowd, and nearly ready for prime time.

MandrakeMove
Originally the Mandrake distribution was Red Hat Linux compiled with optimisations for newer processors. It's since grown into a separate product and is now much more than just a souped-up clone of Red Hat, with MandrakeMove as the live variant.

MandrakeMove is available directly from MandrakeSoft. While it can be downloaded for free, users are asked to join the Mandrake Club or to go on to purchase a boxed copy. The boxed edition of Move is bundled at different price points with USB keys of varying sizes.

MandrakeMove boots directly into KDE 3.1. On our test systems the display auto configuration left us with a disappointingly low refresh rate. In a fashion similar to Linspire Live, the MandrakeMove desktop and menus are organised neatly along functional lines, rather than as a jumble of programs familiar only to experienced users. The office functions sit on top of Open Office 1.1, and the browser of choice is Konqueror.

System configuration is based on Mandrake's own Drak tool, which has a clunky interface in places but isn't unfriendly.

Overall, MandrakeMove is a quality distribution. While the hardware configuration could be stronger, the desktop environment is slick and compares well with Linspire Live.

SuSE Live
The live version of SuSE is specifically intended as a demonstration version of its regular counterpart. Accordingly, no customisation is available, and there are other ups and downs to this approach for the casual user.

First, SuSE Live takes a long time to boot. On boot the standard SuSE installer - YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) - kicks off to detect and configure hardware. While YaST does a superb job of setting up hardware, it takes a long time to do it, and the system proper does not boot up until YaST has completed its process.

These steps in the boot process itself (such as generating an SSH host key set) would normally be one-time operations for a hard disk install, but with a read-only system these are of course every-time operations.

Once the system has booted, though, things take a distinct turn for the better. A clean and well presented KDE 3.1 desktop has icons on the desktop for KDE's Konqueror browser and the Open Office suite. A well laid out menu and quick launch buttons in the KDE taskbar round out the polished feel.

The time waiting for YaST to complete is worth it; on our test system the resolution had automatically been set to a useable 1,280 by 1,024 with a refresh rate of 100Hz, and the network interface was properly determined and configured with DHCP. Mozilla is installed as well as Konqueror for those who prefer a different web browser.

SuSE Live hits its target market very well. It's not for the tweaker, and it takes a long time to boot. But it is polished, does a great job of detecting hardware and bundles a sensible suite of applications.

Mepis Linux beta 2
Until now Mepis has been a relatively unknown brand in the Linux world. As with many other distributions the standard offering is for a hard-disk based install, and the live version is a sideline. As sidelines go, though, this one has some interesting features.

On boot Mepis offers a GRUB-based menu of choices. Power users will appreciate the choices on offer, with different screen resolutions and different kernel versions. Once you choose an option the system starts up almost like a normal Linux box.

There's no pretty logo screen with progress bar, instead you can see the auto-detection routines doing their thing and subsystems initialising. This isn't as clean as some competitors, such as Knoppix (and its derivatives) or SuSE, but it works and is fine given the beta status of the release.

On our testbed Mepis had no trouble booting into a 1,280 by 1,024 KDE 3.1 desktop running on top of a 2.6.4 kernel. Both KOffice and OpenOffice are installed, as are Konqueror and Mozilla for web browsing.