Chapter . Introduction

A live CD is a complete computer operating system on a single disk. You simply pop it into your PC and reboot. Whether the computer has Windows, Linux, or nothing at all installed on it, the live CD hands you control of that computer, using the operating system, applications, and data on that CD.

That’s when the fun begins.

Today dozens of live CDs based on Linux are available for purchase or free download from the Internet. Some of the live CDs are made as general desktop Linux systems (such as Knoppix). Others are built as specialized toolkits, as with the BackTrack Security CD or Dynabolic multimedia production CD. Still others are made to run specialized systems, as with the Devil Linux firewall CD or the ParallelKnoppix ...

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