Living Lively with LiveCD

LiveCD is the ability to run full operating system without installing it to computer beforehand. You can run GNU/Linux LiveCD with CD, DVD, or USB Flash, or even external Hard Disk Drive. To make it easier to understand for everybody, Windows is not LiveCD, but GNU/Linux is. I live with LiveCD everyday, many of UbuntuBuzz's articles I actually wrote in LiveCD mode, and many reviews I could made by using it. LiveCD is a feature known and popular from GNU/Linux. The first distro to introduce it was KNOPPIX. And Ubuntu made it very popular thanks to Canonical's ShipIt program that sent Ubuntu CDs to people in this world (including me) so many people benefited from Ubuntu LiveCDs. To you I share my story with LiveCD and things I learned from my story. I wish this writing benefits you as well. Enjoy!

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Too Long Didn't Read

Just go to section Lessons Learned at the end if you don't want (yet) to read my story below.

Do you remember DOS and Floppy Disk?

DOS predates LiveCD. If you ever worked with MS-DOS from a diskette at 1990's, that's same as LiveCD, except LiveCD is more modern and more advanced. In DOS, you run the whole operating system from a floppy disk without installing it. Windows does not do LiveCD. But most GNU/Linux distros do LiveCD, such as all Ubuntu family, Fedora, openSUSE, Trisquel and PureOS, and many more.

My Limitations

All my hardware are old and slow. That's the only one I have for now. I have only one laptop myself: a Pentium 64-bit with 4GB RAM. In the past, I have one more laptop: a Celeron 64-bit with 2GB RAM (but unfortunately it has been broken since a long time ago). In total, I have 3 hard disk drives. However, I have more than 1 USB flash drives. More difficult limitation is my last laptop cannot do virtualization (so I cannot run things like VirtualBox or QEMU-KVM). Because of these limitations, I cannot install many operating systems I want.

To be honest, there is an old PC in my home but it cannot boot from USB. And recently my father brought an old TOSHIBA laptop which also cannot boot from USB. However, fortunately, both can boot from CD-ROM. But I do not use them daily.

LiveCD's Rules 

• All data deleted every time computer restarted or shutdown. 
• Capacity of data in a LiveCD session is capacity of our RAM. 
• LiveCD can access hard disk and flash drives if we instruct it.
• LiveCD can access local network, wifi, and the internet if we instruct it.
• LiveCD can also be installed permanently to hard drive.

1. I Do LiveCD Everyday

To write articles on UbuntuBuzz, I do many LiveCD sessions when I could not install the operating system or when there is something wrong with my system. To do my own works unrelated with this website, I also do many LiveCD sessions for example to test out several new distros or to help people with their data without compromising my data security. This means I always bring my USB Flash Drive that is already a LiveCD if I work out of my home.

Lesson learned: I benefit from LiveCD everyday and more benefits available day by day.

2. LiveCD is Fast

Running a LiveCD session is basically running an entire operating system without installing it to your hard drive. So it is very fast to enter desktop and be ready to work just as if it is installed permanently. To Windows users, this means we save time to install "Driver CD" as LiveCD works out of the box like magic. Imagine you need to take screenshots of 10 different GNU/Linux distros. Without LiveCD, you will sequentially install them 10 times and remove them 10 times as well and between those you boot them 10 times. With LiveCD you cut off those times by just boot them up.

Lesson learned: OSes with LiveCD ability are fast (faster than those who do not have LiveCD) to benefit us and they can make us work faster.

3. LiveCD is Working

All things work in LiveCD session. Ubuntu LiveCD for example, just like Windows or macOS, has networking, file access, application installation, writing documents, multimedia playback, playing video games, graphic designing, programming and debugging, testing new software, and all.

Lesson learned: we can work with LiveCD everywhing we work with normal operating system installed.

4. LiveCD is Consistent

Run a LiveCD once today, then run same LiveCD tomorrow, and run it again next week, all those sessions are identical. This also means that very LiveCD when actually installed to hard driver, the installed system is identical to the LiveCD system. This means a lot for software developer as you can figure out dependencies consistently with this.

Lesson learned: LiveCD is consistent against time and against its own installed system.

5. LiveCD is History Snapshot

Probably this is the one benefit many people not aware of. If you have a LiveCD of Ubuntu 10.10 from the year 2010, you can still run it perfectly the same as 2010 on the year 2020. Perfectly means all of its features (splash screen, desktop, applications, networking abilities, all limitations, and also bugs and security flaws). For history-loving people, and for those who love retro computing, this means a lot! Even this could be useful for security teaching people. For example, imagine you want to demonstrate Heartbleed security flaw, but your all systems have been patched nowadays (of course they have, right?), how do you easily do the demonstration? The easiest one is if you have a LiveCD of old Ubuntu version which still contain that security bug and present to your audience quickly by booting it up. Make sense, right? So does other things such as if you want to make historical story of LibreOffice versions, the easiest thing to do is just run LiveCDs, as you can take not only screenshot pictures of them but also full functionalities of each of them.

Lesson learned: LiveCD is history snapshot.

6. I Run Applications on LiveCD

Ubuntu in LiveCD session can run all of its preinstalled applications. So does other GNU/Linux distros. This is beneficial a lot as I can write my book manuscript just by using a LiveCD. All activities I want can be done with it. For example, just by an Ubuntu LiveCD, I can run web browser, email client, file manager, office suite, and more.

Lesson learned: we can run all applications in a LiveCD without installing the operating system first.

7. I Install Applications on LiveCD

Of course this is the goal of doing LiveCD sessions. I connect my LiveCD system to the internet and then freely install apps I want. On Ubuntu I use apt-get. On openSUSE I use zypper. On Fedora I use dnf. On Solus I use eopkg. And more you can see yourself comparison table on Distrowatch. This means very big as we can learn different package management systems without installing the particular GNU/Linux operating systems. Also this means simplifications for us who want to test a certain application which we find too difficult to install if that app is already included in a LiveCD. For example, which one is more easy, installing latest GNOME on your permanent system, or just running a LiveCD of latest GNOME? I believe you answer the latter one.

Lesson learned: we can install applications on LiveCD and then copy them to install those applications offline on a permanently installed system.

8. I Run AppImages on LiveCD

I stored several AppImages on my data partition and run those software every time I need from LiveCD sessions so I do not need internet access at all to reuse them.

Probono from Germany is the founding father of AppImage technology, the most useful thing in whole package management styles on GNU/Linux. Probono, aka Simon Peter, is a person who do LiveCD truly often also. I can appreciate him quickly just because I also do LiveCD and benefited from it everyday. He really knows how useful LiveCD is. What is the connection to AppImages?

To most users, AppImage is a new software format that is portable across GNU/Linux distros and across their versions as well. For example, have you heard that now LibreOffice, Inkscape, Krita, Kdenlive are already officially available as AppImages? You just need to download the AppImage file and double-click that, software runs without installation.

Lesson learned: I can run applications I want quickly & universally on LiveCD thanks to AppImage technology.

Lesson learned: I can save much of my money of internet access thanks to AppImages.

(More about AppImage see Hacker News discussion)

9. In Past Singleboot LiveCD, In Present Multiboot LiveCD

Before I knew MultiSystem, I always made every LiveCD in a single CD disc. If I use USB Flash Drive, I also made every LiveUSB in a single USB. This means expensive cost and and resource waste. Since I knew MultiSystem, I always made all my LiveCD multiboot.  This means cost & resource saving a lot. To give you an example, thanks to MultiSystem I can make a 16GB flash drive contains multiple bootable LiveCDs of Ubuntu, Fedora, Trisquel, and other GNU/Linux distros. This way I remove need of time to create LiveCD.

Lesson learned: I can get more benefits with same amount of resources thanks 
to multiboot technology. I really owe MultiSystem, Multibootusb, GLIM, and Aguslr for their inventions.

10. I Can Learn Many Different GNU/Linux Distros Quickly and Without Risks

Thanks to LiveCD, I can learn a lot of GNU/Linux such as dozens of versions and variants of Ubuntu family, Trisquel and PureOS, Fedora and openSUSE, CentOS and Debian, Slitaz and TinyCore, Puppy and Knoppix, BlankOn and IGOS, gNewSense and Manjaro, and more without installing them at all. Learning here of course means running them, seeing their desktops, hearing their sound effects, trying out their applications, experiencing with their control panels, and so on. Without LiveCD I will never learn because my hardware are so limited.

Lesson learned: I can learn many different distros quickly and without risks.

11. I Can Teach GNU/Linux to People Quicker and Easier

Faster for me to process it, and easier to people to digest & understand it. This is the case when I meet people in place.

Lesson learned: I can convey GNU/Linux benefits to people so they can grasp more things quicker as they see the LiveCD session I show them.

12. I Can Help People!

This is the part I love the most. From checking out whether their computer is broken or not, checking whether it is hardware fault or OS (Windows) fault, rescuing their files from broken hard disk drive, to even scan their data with antivirus available (ClamAV), I can use just a LiveCD. So handy, so helpful.

Lesson learned: there are unlimited benefits in teaching GNU/Linux to others and those benefit could be conveyed more quickly with LiveCD.

13. I Can Borrow People's Computers Safely

I can run GNU/Linux as I please on other person's computer without changing their computer at all thanks to LiveCD. This way I can avoid Windows while making them feel secure as I don't delete any data. I avoid Windows not only because I refuse it as the biggest proprietary software (hence it's easiest to avoid) but also I refuse it as malware (although most people are still unaware of). This benefits me (I got help whenever I do not have a computer) and benefits them (they feel safety to entrust their computer to me).

Lessons learned: always use LiveCD when borrowing somebody else's computer to benefit both parties.

14. I Avoid Accidental File Deletion

Yes my laptop runs without a battery for a long time because it was broken and I could not afford to buy a new one. If I had a battery, I would charge it full before doing a LiveCD session if I knew the place I was there was prone to power outage or has some electricity problem. If my LiveCD session got restarted or shutdown accidentally, then all files stored in LiveCD filesystem (in computer memory) are gone. For that reason, I always prepared by saving my files to hard disk drive instead of letting them saved on LiveCD filesystem. Mostly my files from a LiveCD session are screenshots. So as you can guess I have so many folders of screenshots on my special data partition.

Lesson learned: be prepared to save files before power outage.

15. I Learn New Things A Lot

For example, at the moment I tried gNewSense (version 3.0 before Ucclia version) for the first time, that was the time I realized that GStreamer is not proprietary software, it is verily free software, no problem with it, and the problem is instead the MP3 format: it's a patented format, a fierce hostility towards our community. This cleared my past misunderstanding where I thought the software (the implementation) to playback MP3 files are proprietary. As gNewSense could play MP3 while at the same time Ubuntu cannot, I was jolted out, I realized that Ubuntu decided not to ship MP3 support just to protect users in countries where MP3 patent trolls could sue the users for it. From this point I learned a lot about Software Patents: Obstacles to Software Development (this speech made me know really a lot more about our free software community) and in 2016 I wrote my own article (in Indonesian language: Software Patents Mistreat Community) about it. Not only me, you can see how Probono (AppImage founder) learnt a lot about a specific wifi driver problem just by examining LiveCDs of Ubuntu and Deepin.

Lesson learned: I can learn new things with LiveCD.

Lessons Learned 

Finally, here is a collection of lessons learned from my story with LiveCD. I hope my story could benefit you also. Indeed, my living is more lively with LiveCD. I hope yours too.

1. Lesson learned: I benefit from LiveCD everyday and more benefits available day by day.
2. Lesson learned: OSes with LiveCD ability are fast (faster than those who do not have LiveCD) to benefit us and they can make us work faster.
3. Lesson learned: we can work with LiveCD everywhing we work with normal operating system installed.
4. Lesson learned: LiveCD is consistent against time and against its own installed system.
5. Lesson learned: LiveCD is history snapshot.
6. Lesson learned: we can run all applications in a LiveCD without installing the operating system first.
7. Lesson learned: we can install applications on LiveCD and then copy them to install those applications offline on a permanently installed system.
8. Lesson learned: I can run applications I want quickly & universally on LiveCD thanks to AppImage technology.
9. Lesson learned: I can save much of my money of internet access thanks to AppImages.
10. Lesson learned: I can get more benefits with same amount of resources thanks to multiboot technology. I really owe MultiSystem, Multibootusb, GLIM, and Aguslr for their inventions.
11. Lesson learned: I can learn many different distros quickly and without risks.
12. Lesson learned: I can convey GNU/Linux benefits to people so they can grasp more things quicker as they see the LiveCD session I show them.
13. Lesson learned: there are unlimited benefits in teaching GNU/Linux to others and those benefit could be conveyed more quickly with LiveCD.
14. Lessons learned: always use LiveCD when borrowing somebody else's computer to benefit both parties.
15. Lesson learned: be prepared to save files before power outage.
16. Lesson learned: I can learn new things with LiveCD.