Thanks everyone for your comments on LiveCD.Can you use the same feature using a USB or is the DVD thing unique?gcmartin wrote:I know that many are unhappy with me because I use LiveCD
Do you use multisession or don't save at all?
I think your question(s) fall into what advantages or disadvantages exist and where did the LiveCD concept start and why in Puppy?
(Not to bore, but ...) LiveCD became a hit with Knoppix where that distro demonstrated to the world that you could reliably run an OS strictly from CD while viewing and using your HDD for just a "data" device. (One simple way of expressing what Knoppix did for LInux community). This was revolutionary because all of the world's vendors wanted us to use HDDs for everything.
Whether others agree with my following statement or not, but, HDD includes permanent storage devices that behave similarly; namely ATA/ISA/SATA/SCSI/Firewire/FiberChannel/USB/SAS harddrives and memory storage units.
On the other hand, CD/DVD are designed and built differently with a completely difference life-cycle (MTBF). But, its technology embraces something that I believe is very advantageous: WORM.
PUPPY publishes the LIveCD as its architecture and supports it use. This has been of great assistance to me in its operation and in the support that the Pup community provides.
The number 1 use I gain is not just the ability to change an OS by just changing the CD at boot time, but also the fact, that the operational LIveCD is ONLY written to when I deem it appropriate. This reduces opportunity of something going wrong or a virus from distorting or damaging the booted OS. This is a guarantee for me insuring that I know what I am running, and what I consciously save.
In most OSs, we don't have a lot of control over this. Puppy PUBLISHES this as a SUPPORTED media and a proper method of running Puppy. Thus, all PUPs are mandated to provide and support LiveCD as an operational approach to running Puppy. This is a godsend for those of us who need to take advantage of this provision.
Now, it makes it very easy for me to test/retest known scenarios and to insure that when I restart I know what is coming up and when it occurred. I'm not sure how many others of us setup and run LiveCD/LiveDVDs environments with regard to taking advantage of the kinds of failsafes and protections I mention.
Whenever I burn an ISO, I burn it in Multi-session mode. Pburn makes this obvious and easy to do. To have your PETs/SFSs and other applications and services changes preserved over reboots, you can do as I do on "Save to CD" at reboot/poweroff.
I have been running all PUPs this way since I first became excited about this in Puppy. My OS protected on CD/DVD and running in RAM; and my HDDs are just used for data.
In fact, the only PUPs I use in production are on LiveDVD and have SAMBA PETs installed allowing the PC to accomplish everything my Windows7/Vista/XP/2000 PCs do on my LAN(s). Full SAMBA is a very recent feature that resurfaced in Puppyland. Now, when my LiveCD/LiveDVDs boot, they come up running on the LAN with all the same services that the other mentioned PC have. This is a full service environment.
In closing, yes, for booting, HDD is faster, but CD/DVD are NOT THAT MUCH SLOWER!. And, since in Linux there is little need to boot that often, the 1 minute or so to wait for desktop has "little to no" impact on my life.
Hope this helps.
P.S. If you need to write or re-write files or folders on an existing multi-session media, see here.
