Ever get the urge to try out a bunch of Linux distros at once? Maybe you’re hosting a Linux installation party. Here’s an easy way to get a bunch of Live CDs working from a single thumb drive.
10 Distributions, You Say?
MultiSystem is a really easy tool made to run on Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distros that you can use to play with various LiveCDs at once, or to create the ultimate recovery device. If you don’t use Ubuntu, you can use an Ubuntu Live CD to install MultiSystem so that you can create your super live USB drive without having to run Linux as your main OS.
It’s best to download your ISOs ahead of time, and select a USB drive large enough to house them all. I actually went with an 8 GB SD card (used via a USB adapter). Here are some of the popular and interesting distros I used.
Ubuntu, a very novice-friendly and popular distro that’s widely used
Kubuntu, a KDE-oriented version of Ubuntu.
Linux Mint, another novice-friendly distro that aims to get more usable out of the box. It is also 100% compatible with Ubuntu packages.
Linux Mint Debian Edition, like Linux Mint except it’s 100% compatible with the Debian testing build.
Debian, one of the older and more central distros out there. It has both a “stable” build and a “testing” build.
Fedora, which used to be RedHat and is another big distro. It aims at power, and has several “spins”, which aim to work out of the box for different purposes.
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