The book describes how to take the included live CDs (or use related technology) to build custom live CDs that contain the software and data (music, video, documents, etc.) you choose. Along the way you will learn how to customize every aspect of the CD, from the boot process to personalized desktops and applications.
Insert the DVD that comes with this book into your computer and reboot. From the boot prompt that appears, there are six remastered Linux live CDs you can launch. Trying them will help you understand the kinds of live CDs you can make before you start customizing or building your own live CD.
For low-end machines, SLAX and Damn Small Linux generally run well. With those CDs, you can add software from the Internet as you run live and save your customizations (to a pen drive or hard disk). KNOPPIX is considered the best full-featured Linux desktop live CD. The Gentoo live CD lets you install that live CD's contents to your hard disk.
If you only have a CD drive, complete images of Ubuntu, MoviX, BackTrack, and other live CDs can be burned from the DVD to run separately. GeeXboX can be remastered to make bootable movies, while Devil-Linux lets you make a custom firewall.
To stimulate ideas about the kind of live CD you might build, the book describes special types of live CDs for security, presentations, gaming, multimedia, and clusters. Once you know the basics for building a live CD, you can pick the packages you want to include from the thousands of software packages available from online software repositories.
If you enjoy tinkering with software, making live CDs is a fun way to spend some time that can result in a completely personalized computer system you can carry in your pocket. I hope you enjoy my book. -- Chris Negus