Greetings,
I've been successful in using Helix for bulk imaging as well, but I've run into situations where Helix crashes or refuses to recognize hardware on too many occasions to be truly comfortable with it.
I'd love to see a very simple Live CD aimed at *just* imaging with someone keeping it very, very current. Helix is great in general, but it's "do everything" approach combined with long release times means that many tools get out of date.
-David
This is a very good point. If the distribution was focused solely on imaging, they could probably do a better release cycle and make sure we have, e.g., an up-to-date kernel, the latest ntfs-3g, etc.
–G
The latest is not always the greatest. Those following the 2.6 Linux kernel development have witnessed this first hand. One simple example is that of the loop device issue beginning in the 2.6.21 kernel through the 2.6.24 kernel.
My presumption is that those putting out a Linux boot CD, commercial or not, want to put out a good product that has been tested and works with the widest range of hardware in the most number of scenarios. This translates into time.
My latest CD uses the 2.6.21.5 Linux kernel and the hardware support is excellent.However, it does not include the latest versions of all applications and drivers. There are different reasons why, but one is because the newer version of an application introduces a bug that is deemed unacceptable for the CD, and another is because a new driver causes conflict with an existing driver that is more likely to be used more often. Etc.
Just some thoughts )
farmerdude