Distribute software on a Linux LiveCD

Small, bootable Linux and your apps all on a single CD -- try it, you'll like it

This article is brought to you by the developerWorks editorial staff.

Summary: Linux® LiveCDs contain the operating system and applications all on a single CD and are a handy way to distribute software when compactness, portability, and/or security matter.

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Date: 31 Jan 2006
Level: Introductory
Activity: 2230 views

Linux has always been comfortable running Web servers, firewalls, and other single-function services on dedicated machines, thanks to its flexibility, reliability, and small kernel footprint. LiveCDs are a natural extension of this capability of single-mindedness, letting you install a specialized, bootable Linux distribution -- along with whatever applications you choose -- onto a single CD for distribution. For an overview, read "Spin up a Linux LiveCD" (developerWorks, July 2004).

What's in it for you?

Some advantages for developers are:

You can control the execution environment by modifying the kernel and including other software only as necessary for your application.
The operating system and applications are clean and uncompromised -- especially important for security and diagnostics applications.
Users can run your software on non-Linux machines without the need to install emulation or translation layers, or set up multi-boot capability -- great for distributing trial software and demos.

We've never underestimated the creativity of programmers, and we expect you can think of a dozen more good reasons to use the LiveCD format.

Reading material

We've put together a collection of articles on Linux LiveCDs, starting with a set of four articles that show some of the applications -- by no means exhaustive -- that can work well on a LiveCD:

Finally, here are two articles that show how to build your own:

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