Why not a Linux Live CD with SL ? ;D

Hello ;D

I am not programmer, but at give many Linux Live CD with office or another programs ;D

Why then a Live make with SL ? ;D

For what? I mean, the Linux-Client is only useful for people already using Linux. If a windows-user sees the status and the bugs of the Linux-Client he would never ever try Linux again...

But if you want to... I don't think its much work to create a Live-Linux-CD with a SL-Client using Knoppix. But you have to rebuild the CD anytime a new SL-Client comes out. In addition I do not think it's good for the community and for starters if there are hundreds of Live-CDs and Distributions. But thats a different discussion

I think not so ;D

The Live CD is good for presents the SL programm for new Users ;D And so can more new Users for SL and more under Linux ;D

But you are right, updates come in short would be away. And the programm must stable under Linux and no more alpha ;D

As cool as it would be, one could not load SL into ram with a live CD. You MUST have persistant storage for the cache to function, and most people don't have 4gigs of ram XD

For what it's worth, my SL cache runs in RAM. "rm -rf cache && ln -s ~/.ramspace cache", assuming you've mounted a ramdrive at ~/.ramspace. You could also use /dev/shm, but methinks that's less safe...

Live CD for this app is useless, though, at least until auto-updating via client works. Even then, you're right on one thing; that'd be a RAM hog.

you mean on a ram disk ?

Two words: 3D acceleration.

I'm not saying it dosen't work, or that it's bad. But it's one of the more common newbie problems and frequently requires conf file tweaking. Maybe not the best way to introduce someone to both Linux and SecondLife.

I think there is a real problem with the LiveCD idea.. I really like the idea in many ways, and it would be possible to run a script that downloads the latest version and runs it.. I know the RAM constraints will be horrible, but it would be nice for people to be able to run something just to check their hardware works with SL under linux (when the OS is set up correctly). The real problem though is distributing proprietary graphics drivers as part of the distribution. It may break the GPL and is therefore (potentially) illegal. I am not that up on liveCDs.. perhaps there is some way of getting round this like downloading the nvidia (or ati) driver each time you boot, but this seems like a particularly horrible solution.

I know Linus takes a very pragmatic approach to this, and does not see NVidia or ATI drivers as breaking the Linux kernel license, but there are those fanatics who will threaten and hassle anyone who attempts such a thing...

http://kororaa.org/index.php?entry=entry060512-160752

less said about that the better IMHO, but I think this is a real shame.

Restricted modules are often on the distribution CD but not installed by default. The user must select to install them and change out the free(gpl) drivers for the nonfree(nongpl). Drivers are as well covered under fair use since the hardware which these drivers run in has been purchased then it is considered fair use to use them on that hardware in the way the hardware/driver maker intended.

Distrubutions such as Knoppix and Ubuntu travel with the restricted modules on the CD but are not installed, the user must install/load them based on their hardware and often there is a blurb displayed about accepting the licencing terms at the install point(though not always). Ubuntu's LiveCD comes very close to breaking these barriers as it is.
*EDIT* Some other things after thinking a moment: The driver(nVidia or ATI) ties with X which is released under an MIT license (check http://www.x.org). The GPL is a very strange license which requires close reading and a few lawyers. If nVidia or ATI had changed any of the code in the kernel they would have to release it, I haven't found a clause about closed source software/drivers interfacing with the kernel. The compilation part of the drivers is so the driver is modified, not the kernel. BSD has a much more friendly license.*EDIT*

A live CD would have to load, detect hardware, ask the user about installing specific nongpl drivers, then install them with no rebooting(possible I guess) then update the SL client and run it all within the constraints of a ram disk. This could be stripped just to run SL tossing out anything extra but it might be difficult to get a running OS and a ramdisk in the average users computer.

IANAL, but I see no problem with including the nVidia module. nVidia, since the kernel doesn't have a stable ABI, wrote a GPL'd "shim" to connect their proprietary module with the kernel, to avoid "tainting" the kernel. Of course, RMS had a hissy fit, but that's another story.

RMS had a hissy? Who would have thought? That's something I've never heard of before <eyeroll/>