CD-bootable distro: which is best?

[KWTm]

I want to have a useful Linux distribution that I can boot from CD. (I DON'T mean _install_ onto hard disk from a bootable CD.)

I've tried Dynebolic Linux. Anything else worth looking at? I'd like to be able to use Linux on my Windows box whenever I want, without needing to install anything.

Is that feasible? If not, what's the closest I can come?

(Wouldn't it be great if I could go to my friend's house and pop the CD into his drive on bootup? Maybe I could have something configured to look like Windows, except for one feature that obviously isn't --maybe the virtual desktops. Then he'd ask, "Hey, how'd you do that to Windows?" and I'd say, "Uh, that's not Windows.")

[mdwatts]

Have a look at http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ as they have a section on CD based distros.

I know of DemoLinux and ?? Knoppix (something like that).

[rustskull]

Unless you build your bootable distro for his pc specifically or it includes everything it needs to run on anything (you probably still wont get the greatest picture or get sound to run right off) it won't work optimally, if at all.

If you want to find a bunch of cd contained distros, look at firewall distros (openbsd (I think) and a few others, sco is dead apparently), but the upshot is that a lot of people run their firewalls from ramdisk (section of ram that's sectioned off and used like a small hard drive) and keep the main files on a cd so they can't get corrupted by a virus or other attack. YOu should be able to find several that you would be able to lay some candy on top of and call it good.

start with stuff like
openbsd.org and coyote linux

YOur other (and best, IMNSHO) is to build it yourself....the linux from scratch site can help you there...

linuxfromscratch.org

rescue disks and stuff can be cool to hack upand for ideas on how to work it. If you don't want to muck with your buddy's bios, you can just bring a floppy with the smart boot manager on it (it's at source forge, just google it and you'll get there) and you can boot that cd in about 10 seconds (probably less with a decently fast cdrom drive).

-rust