TechLifeBlogged

Download, burn, and boot doing disaster IT with a Shelter Lab LiveCD Build (SLLB) is a really interesting article that covers an attempt to use liveCDs (both Linux and Windows) at emergency shelters in the wake of Katrina. The article covers the challenges involved with hardware and software as well as some basic standards problems. FEMA's IE only web site being a major problem that they had to deal with and in some cases made a Linux distro a problem to use.

I like the idea of a LiveCD to have in your emergency bag of tricks. With liveCD's you could grab what ever hardware you could find and, provided the infrastructure was there with regards to AC and 'Net access, set up common computers in a make shift lab. Everything would be instantly the same at least as far as the UI. Great for kiosks.

Linux distros are the best at this. I've only experimented with Knoppix but I am always astounded when I pop the disc in, reboot and have sound, internet and all sorts of software ready to go. Plus there aren't the licensing issues you have with Windows.

 

Technorati Tags : disaster+planning, IT, linux, knoppix, thinkNOLA, LiveCD