Discussion on:

Six ways to use Linux Live CDs in your business

There are many more uses than this. Some of them apply to AOL CDs as well.

#6 - Coasters. Linux CDs can make ideal coasters for your tea or coffee mugs.

#7 - Frisbees. Need to let off a bit of steam at lunchtime? CDs make good frisbees for intra-office shenanigans.

I mean, I could go on..

I have successfully used these live cds to recover user data/documents from irreparably corrupt/malware windows boxes. Mounting a usb drive and transfering the needed files. Nice and Quick! They do have a place in my IT arsenal.

I use Slax and Knoppix to retrieve files from windows systems that won't boot. There's even tools for recovering files on systems where the file system itself is broken or has inadvertently been deleted/overwritten. (foremost, pcrec etc)

I'd like to learn more about #5 -- how do I bundle up a custom-branded Linux?

http://forumubuntusoftware.info/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2201
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Pogo-Linux-Offers-Custom-Branding/
http://maketecheasier.com/6-tools-to-easily-create-your-own-custom-linux-distro/2010/04/08

The last thing I'd want is one of our buyers calling me to say, "A vendor gave me this CD, but my system is trying to boot off it!" With no knowledge of what it could be doing, I'd feed that sucker to the shredder. My buyer would sit unproductive while I ran a full scan for malware.

You can have special machine for the test, if your buyer still wants to get access to data on the disk. Like sandpit.
Then, close access to CD-ROM booting on users' machines. Or even better - remove all optical drives from the machines at all.
Another solution is to encode hard drives of user machines. Whatever malware [may be] on CD-ROM, it won't touch the HDD data.
Finding shortcut to the shredder is excuse for your lack of wish to be flexible.

Seek out IT for a test system, or just stuff the CD in the drive?

Unless you're a consultant in Linux systems, what's the advantage over a traditional business card?

I don't think handing a customer an entire live OS on optical media is a good idea. It takes too long to get to a desktop, and there may be problems with default settings preventing a desktop at all without user intervention.

A disk that pops up a web interface preloaded with your 'business card' on the other hand is a good idea. You can provide all manner of links the client may find useful, eg a link to download MBAM, a link to a Microsoft alert, links to cost/benefit analysis information... limitless possibilities that a paper business card just can't provide.

But a live OS? Recipe for a plethora of potential disasters, one of them certainly being doubt about your opinions and capabilities.

There's a much bigger chance of a customer reading a business card that's easy to hand than inserting a CD and looking at one's details. They just couldn't care less.

i use a few live Linux CDs according to issue when recovering crashed Microsoft OS PCs.

Rebuilding file systems, fix corruption, security checking, virus / malware scanning are just a few of the recovery processes Linux can do for MS.

Ironic how often the best repair tools for MS are on Linux.

...more times than I can count. It includes a ton of networking and anti-virus tools. But the feature I've used the most is Winpass, a utility to blank forgotten Windows administrator passwords.

http://trinityhome.org

Now there are six PLUS ONE reasons:

http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2012/04/six-ways-to-use-linux-live-cds-in-your.html