A number of other packages have been updated as well

Oct 2, 2014 17:01 GMT  ·  By

Knoppix, a bootable Live CD/DVD made up from the most popular and useful free and open source applications, backed up by automatic hardware detection and support for a large number of hardware devices, is now at version 7.4.2.

It's strange to see so many new updates for Knoppix in such a short time, but it's also good news. Knoppix has been around for more than 13 years, and most of Linux users have at least heard about it. It's been missing for a while from the open source scene, but now it's back.

What the devs are saying about it

The Knoppix developers are now making up for the absence and that can be easily seen from the huge number of changes and improvements that are being pushed from one version to another. Not all are important, but a few of them really are.

"Version 7.4.2 of KNOPPIX is based on the usual picks from Debian stable (wheezy) and newer Desktop packages from Debian/testing and Debian/unstable (jessie). It uses kernel 3.16.3 and xorg 7.7 (core 1.16.1) for supporting current computer hardware."

"In addition to the 32bit standard kernel, the 64bit version of the same kernel is installed on the DVD edition, supporting systems with more than 4GB of RAM and chroot to 64-bit installations for system rescue tasks. In the DVD version, the bootloader will start the 64bit kernel automatically if a 64bit-capable CPU is detected (if not manually specified otherwise)," say the devs in the announcement.

Some of the most important updates include Linux kernel 3.16.3, which is now the most advanced stable version available, X.Org 1.16.1, Iceweasel 32.0.3, Chromium 37.0.2062.120, libnss3 3.17.1, LibreOffice 4.3.2, GIMP 2.8.14, KDE 4.8.4 (this is actually a very old one, but still in use), Network Manager 0.9.10.0, and isc-dhcp Client+Server 4.3.1-2.

The Knoppix makers also explain that it's now possible to start the distribution with GNOME by using the boot option "knoppix desktop=gnome," the Shellshock bash vulnerability has been fixed, and various security updates have been added from Debian.

As you can see from this comprehensive changelog, the system runs some of the latest packages, with very few exceptions, which makes it one of the few Linux OSes to do this. Most developers choose packages that are older and proved to be more stable, but Knoppix devs have taken a more risky route.

You can download the latest Knoppix version from Softpedia and try it. It's a Live CD and it works like a charm on most systems.