RHEL Live CD? (Hardware Compatibility)

[Gavin Young]

Speaking from experience no amount of research can determine without doubt that a PC component such as a RAID controller is Linux compatible, variances in model numbers, revisions and chipsets all make a definitive answer very difficult. Nothing beats actually trying to install and run the OS on the machine in question.

A live CD is becoming the second best option when testing for Linux compatibility. It gives you an opportunity to see Linux boot on the machine and detect the simple devices, VGA, NIC etc... without actually installing anything. It's quite funny watching salesman faces when you throw a CD in a showroom PC and watch their PC start-up in Linux. :-)

Are there any live CD's based on RHEL? If not what is the recommended way to determine weather a PC or specific component is RHEL compatible?

Keen to hear people's thoughts...

Gavin