# Knoppix 65 Hacker News commenters recommended Knoppix and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 22 years (6 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for booting Linux from CD, DVD or USB to rescue broken Windows PCs, try Linux and learn it without installing. ## Why people recommend it - Recovering files from broken Windows (5 comments): "The number of times I rescued data off of broken Windows installations with Knoppix is BIG!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48739920)) "used Knoppix to recover some data from my old Windows PC, great first contact with Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48734100)) "Knoppix would boot from the CD and let you recover files from your HD. Loved it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48735078)) - Trying Linux without installing (5 comments): "Knoppix gave us live CDs, and everybody who had been making excuses for years could test drive to their hearts content" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48736340)) "This was huge at a time where it was quite difficult for a non-technical user to install Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48736290)) "It was my first experience of a Live CD. which was cool as I could run it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48733635)) - Helped people learn Linux (4 comments): "basically Knoppix and Wienux live distributions set me up for what has later become a career working with Linux/DevOps/SRE" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48738916)) "helped me learn quite a bit about networking and security in general" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48735279)) "I learned on Knoppix, back when storage was scarce and expensive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45890728)) - Good hardware autodetection (3 comments): "I always had some Knoppix live CD/DVD which had better defaults than Ubuntu itself on hardware autodetection and setup." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47918425)) "The detection/configuration of hardware just worked out of the box." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48735735)) "one of the best hardware autodetection settings ever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48733979)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Ubuntu](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ubuntu.md): 560 recommend - [Debian](https://hackerapproved.com/p/debian.md): 552 recommend - [Fedora Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fedora.md): 437 recommend - [Arch Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arch-linux.md): 362 recommend - [Linux Mint](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux-mint.md): 277 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Knoppix", https://hackerapproved.com/p/knoppix/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).