Live CD suggestion-Save Settings

[Rory Gleeson]

What do people think about a LiveCD that saves basic settings to your hard 
drive as an option on boot.  Why?

Linux Live CDs are great getting-to-know-you marketing tools.  But, they're 
one-offs, as it becomes annoying to re-do your settings each time.  

I was seduced over to Linux by the SuSE 9.0 LiveCD which saved all your basic 
settings (desktop, email, browser, etc.) in three easily identifiable files 
on your HD.  

This allowed me to take a peak at Linux, which the other LiveCDs allowed.  
But, it also allowed to use Linux regularly for a few weeks from the CD to 
see how it worked.  It was this longer transition that allowed me to become 
comfortable with Linux and slowly allowed me to remove my dependency from 
Windows, as I found that many days went by without booting in to it.  It 
showed me that Linux could do everything I needed it to do, I became 
increasingly comfortable with working in it every day and I eventually made 
the plunge.

It also did something else: it allowed me to give the LiveCD to friends to 
covert them over.  Everyone I've given Knoppix, MandrakeMove or SuSE Live 
9.1/9.2 to check out say "cool".  Same with the Ubuntu LiveCD.  But, it ends 
there.  

But, when I give out the SuSE 9.0 LiveCD, I've actually converted a few people 
over to Linux.  And, while they like using the LiveCD for a few weeks, it's 
not a long term solution because of the speed of a CD-based distro, so they 
eventually take the plunge, too. 

So, there's a place for a LiveCD that saves settings to a HD.  I think this 
might be a really nice edge that Ubuntu could take advantage of.  What do 
people think?

And, thanks for Ubuntu!  Love the Ubuntu philosophy, love the potential of 
this project and love the distro.

Rory
Toronto, Canada


Note: I've searched the various Ubuntu lists for this topic and haven't found 
anything, so I apologize if this has already been hashed out or if it should 
have been posted to a different list.