Mohtalim

I am currently in the market for a new x86 operating system, at least for a day or two. Here are some requirements:

• CD bootable
  Reads FAT32
  Includes an FTP server, or decent FTP client
  Supports Tulip driver network cards (or 3c509 or 3c90x in a pinch)

In related news, my desktop machine is hosed. Drive number 1 is failing horribly. Anybody have suggestions for the OS? A link to an ISO would be appreciated.

linux, take your pick

I've heard good things about something called "Windows"...

I don't think there are any modern, free, x86 operating systems that have matured to a useful point other than BSDs and Linux. There are a slew of microkernels around, especially on sourceforge, but I think most of them are not ready, not useful, or no longer under development.

Have you considered simply moving the failing drive to another system or putting another system's drive in the failing system. That would be a much easier solution than trying to find a BSD or Linux distribution that runs usefully from CD without first being configured.

As another possibility, most of the installation disk/CD images support FTP downloads of the distribution. If you could convince one of them to give you a shell rather than simply running the installation script, you might be able to get direct access to the FTP client.

as the incumbant computer guru of this forum, I recommend a Mac. http://www.apple.com/

George wrote:As another possibility, most of the installation disk/CD images support FTP downloads of the distribution. If you could convince one of them to give you a shell rather than simply running the installation script, you might be able to get direct access to the FTP client.

There is always Knoppix LiveCD

I agree with Peijen. Knoppix is probably your best bet. As an alternative, there is also the Gentoo Live CD.

You can google for it as well as I.

Cool. Knoppix and Gentoo live CDs will probably be the most useful in this particular case.