Free bootable software for linux

Damn Small Linux is a business card size (50MB) bootable Live CD Linux distribution. Despite its minuscule size, Damn Small Linux strives to have a functional and easy to use desktop.
Having a working Linux desktop distro on a 50 mb bootable business card CD is just too cool not to do.
Damn Small Linux has a nearly complete desktop, including XMMS (MP3, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, links web browser, FireFox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor (FLwriter), four editors (Beaver, nVi, Zile [emacs clone], and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf, emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox window manager, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and pcmcia support, some wireless support.
If you like DSL you can install it on your hard drive. Because all the applications are small and light it makes a very good choice for older hardware.
Originally DSL was based on model_k, which did an excellent distillation of Knoppix down to 33 megabytes. But more recent versions are a reduction from Knoppix proper.
As many know Knoppix is based on Debian which really made my task a lot easier, but the applications on the CD are not pure Debian. I am using a few apps that are not available via apt-get.
Whats New in 4.0 RC1 Development Release:
- New pendrive usbhdd installation script now uses grub with DSL on 2nd small partition.
- Removed pendrive usbzip install script, syslinux and mtools.
- Changed default root menu from dfm to chosen WM menu.
- Updated "Getting Started" to reflect changed defaults.
- Changed kernel from 2.4.34.1 to 2.4.31 to gain user contributed modules, e.g., ipw2and nvidia.
- Created new support modules: cloop, unionfs, ndiswrapper, fuse, and madwifi in support of kernel change.
- Updated nano-tiny to v2.0.6.
- Fixed non-critical bug in dsl-config concerning hard drive installations.
- Added dsl 3 runlevel for multiple user dsl consoles.
- Fixed bug in iwconfig-setup
- Updated functions5.lua
- Updated fluxbox menus to use system default (helvetica).
- Added vim link
- Patched knoppix-autoconfig to correct language issues.

Super Grub Disk is a bootable floppy or CDROM that is oriented towards system rescue, specifically for repairing the booting process.

Super Grub Disk is simply a Grub Disk with a lot of useful menus.

It can activate partitions, boot partitions, boot MBRs, boot your former OS (Linux or another one) by loading menu.lst from your hard disk, automatically restore Grub on your MBR, swap hard disks in the BIOS, and boot from any available disk device.

Super Grub Disk project has multi-language support, and allows you to change the keyboard layout of your shell.

Finnix is a self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution ("LiveCD") for system administrators, based on Debian testing "etch".
You can mount and manipulate hard drives and partitions, monitor networks, rebuild boot records, install other operating systems, and much more.
Finnix includes the latest technology for system administrators, with Linux kernel 2.6, LVM2, encrypted partitions, etc. And above all, Finnix is small; currently the entire distribution is over 300MB, but is dynamically compressed into a 105MB bootable image.
Finnix is not intended for the average desktop user, and does not include any desktops, productivity tools, or sound support, in order to keep distribution size low.
Finnix is freely distributable under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Main features:
- Finnix is based on Debian "testing"; Knoppix is based on Debian "unstable" and several other repositories.
- Finnix is available as a 105MB ISO; Knoppix is available as a 700MB or 3.5GB ISO (CD/DVD editions).
- Knoppix includes XFree86 and many, many desktop and productivity tools and games; Finnix does not.
- Finnix includes utilities not found in Knoppx, such as LVM2, cryptsetup, cdpr, iftop, irssi, reiser4progs, an OTP calculator, VLAN tools, and the essential robotfindskitten.
- Finnix includes a different Linux kernel than Knoppix; as of this writing, 2.6.13.3 versus 2.6.12, respectively.
- Finnix uses an almost completely reworked initrd, a compressed ROM filesystem with BusyBox; Knoppixs initrd uses a compressed ext2 filesystem with statically compiled tools.
- Knoppix can be installed on a hard drive or use floppies/USB keys for storing personal data; Finnix cannot.
- Finnix can be copied to RAM and run in only 256MB; Knoppix requires at least 1GB.
- Knoppix is available in several languages and has an impressive array of internationalization tools; Finnix is English only.

grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) based on Knoppix and Debian. grml includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection.
You can use grml for example as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks or as a working environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk, you dont even need a harddisk to run it.
Due to on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2 GiB of software and documentation on the CD.
Main features:
- distribution for users of text tools and sysadmins
- debian and knoppix based distribution [use existing infrastructure]
- usability for visually handicapped people right out of the box
- small and geeky community
grml provides more than 1900 software packages. Excluding library stuff still more than 1400 packages remain. We dont ship KDE and OpenOffice but more than 700 packages Knoppix does not provide.
grml provides several scripts und utils which make live easier. zsh is configured with the completion mechanism. grml-x is a wrapper for using the X window system.
People from VC Graz for example can get a PPTP tunnel via calling the script grml-pptp-vcgraz (enter username and password - thats it!). Writing config files on the readonly filesystem is possible via running the script grml-bind.

linuX-gamers Live DVD is a bootable medium with a collection of popular 3D games. It contains both the NVIDIA and ATI proprietary Linux drivers and includes the following games:
- BzFLag
- Enemy Territory
- Glest
- Nexuiz
- Sauerbraten
- Torcs
- Tremulous
- True Combat: Elite
- Warsow and World of Padman
Although the live DVD is based on Arch Linux, it does not offer any desktop Linux functionality except gaming.

PCLinuxOS is an English only Live CD initially based on Mandrake Linux that runs entirely from a bootable CD.

Data on the CD is uncompressed on the fly, allowing up to 2GB of programs on one CD including a complete X server, KDE desktop, OpenOffice.org and many more applications all ready to use.

In addition to the live CD, you can also install PCLinuxOS to your hard drive with an easy-to-use livecd-installer. Additional applications can be added or removed from your hard drive using a friendly apt-get front end via Synaptic.

GoblinX is a Live-CD that is based on the excellent Slackware distribution.
GoblinX is directed towards those users who appreciate quality applications and a workspace that is both practical and beautiful.

GoblinX contains some of the most often used and praised applications for Linux. click on the ~Applications~ button to see which ones.

A Live-CD is a completely operational Linux system contained on one bootable CD that can de run from any CD-ROM drive, without requering the installation of anything on your hard drive.

When you want to return to your previous operating system, reboot and simply remove the GoblinX CD from your drive.

Using GoblinX is extremely easy. All you need is a bootable CD-ROM drive and GoblinX distro CD. GoblinX will run on your computer off of the CD using on-the-fly decompression. The first screen that appears after booting will allow you to choose the kernel image and add parameters to the system, a.k.a. "cheat codes", such as choosing to enable or disable certain "modules", choosing a non-default password, and/or selecting a screen resolution. However, you could just press "ENTER" at this prompt to initiate the default system settings, as GoblinX will still run perfectly well without needing any additional parameters.

The graphical boot uses a "boot splash", which not only warmly welcomes you, but displays thumbnails of each of the three available windows managers. If you wish to see the inner workings of the kernel while is booting just press F2, and the boot messages will be displayed instead.

At the end of the boot, the user will be logged and he can do all his works or simply enjoy himself.