Hybrid image mode for Knoppix 8.0
Bye Bye DVD
© Lead Image © Jan Treger, 123RF.com
As DVD drives disappear from modern notebook computers, Knoppix offers a hybrid image mode that works for both DVDs and flash drives.
The DVD is a comparatively long-lasting (50+ years) optical storage media. Yet in today's notebooks, you will rarely find a built-in DVD drive. This may be related to the unpleasant form factor, considering the DVD's capacity of about 4GB single-sided or 8GB double-sided, which offers much less storage capacity than a modern tiny microSD card. For booting from removable media, the easily portable USB flash pen with a practical keyring connector has long been a favorite for most users instead of the CD or DVD. So, wouldn't it be appropriate for Knoppix to just give up on the old-fashioned DVD and start distributing only flash disk images instead?
As much as this seems to be a reasonable step, there are still pros and cons to both formats (Table 1).
Probably the most important issue is the easy handling of distributed images. A DVD ISO, containing the ISO 9660/Rock Ridge/Joliet filesystem, is always exactly as big as the included (unpartitioned) data; there is no adjustment needed when burning.
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