What can we say. It’s certainly nicer to give someone a bootable CD than a shank, right? Besides, it allows prison inmates to learn that there is a world outside of Windows.

The Victorian Department of Justice (DoJ) is understood to have deployed a secure, “locked-down” Linux environment across more than 100 desktops in state prisons.

ZDNet Australia understands the environment — including deployment of a heavily customised form of the Knoppix Linux distribution across 120 desktops in correctional facilities — went live within the last one to two months after a six-month project.

Knoppix is a project that allows users to boot Linux from a CD or DVD without installing any software to a hard drive. Most hardware is automatically detected and configured during the boot process, and free and open source software such as OpenOffice.org is commonly bundled with the Linux operating system.

State government officials were reluctant to comment on the fine detail of the project, citing security issues.

The software is believed to run on a so-called TrimClient solution, billed as a thin-client/personal computer hybrid…. Source: ZDNet