[GTALUG] looking for a general purpose boot media to keep in case of distasters

[joeDoe]

On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 01:02:28PM -0400, bitmap via talk wrote:
> Is there a distinction between a "live image" and the USB installer?  I
> think we are talking about the same thing; maybe I used inaccurate
> language.

In general, an installer will do nothing more than install a new system.
Most will probably have some shell access available to be able to do some
stuff outside of the installation, but usually only related to the
installation. It is limited as you say.

A live system gives you a complete working system that runs off the USB
key/CD/etc that you burned it to and memory, rather than the permanent
storage of the computer. Many live systems will also permit you to
subsequently install them to the permanent storage of the computer, but you
are not required to.

> 
> Does this OpenSUSE image come with a broad range of tools?  The debian,
> ubuntu, manjaro and others I have lying around are just the very basics. 
> Am often missing something needed.

Anything that you need that isn't on the live system can be easily installed
if it's packaged for Debian. It's a full system, so you can also download
and compile something that isn't packaged in Debian if you need to do so.

--
joeDoe