What is it?

The Rescue Remix is an Ubuntu-based linux operating system that runs from a cd. Booting from a "live" cd does not require that your computer's hard drive be used. The Remix contains the very best free and open source data recovery and forensics software currently available.

What is Free-Libre Open Source software?

Free-Libre Open source software is computer software whose source code is available under a license that permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. That license gives the end user the right to use it freely for private or commercial use. When distributing modified FLOSS, you must pass on the modified source code. This protects the developer's work from unfair exploitation by others, while allowing the source code to be released to the community.

FLOSS is often developed in a public, collaborative manner. In contrast to FLOSS, freeware is not the same thing. The free in "free-libre" stands for the freedom to use the software and to be able to modify and redistribute it. Those freedoms allow people to collaborate and improve the software. Freeware, however, does not protect those rights and so it typically is not software of as high quality.

FLOSS licensing means that the software will always be free. Freeware makes no such promise, in fact freeware applications usually do not stay free of cost for long. The FLOSS business model is one of services and support. For example, the most popular web server on the internet is Apache and it is free-libre open source software.

FLOSS supports a big part of the IT industry and represents a multi-billion dollar business. The ability to obtain, use, and cutomize world-class software without prohibitive fees and licensing makes FLOSS an excellent choice in the computer services industry.

Is it easy to use?

The Rescue Remix does not currently use a graphical interface. It uses a text interface.

The unix shell interface is the most powerful way to use a computer. The flexibility of the command-line is unserpassed. To implement a graphical (point and click) interface would restrict the usefulness of the software.

That being said, if someone were to create an interface that would not sacrifice useful features and performance, it would become part of the Ubuntu-rescue-remix. For the time being, there is no such interface and only the best software for the job is included with the Rescue Remix.

To get easy-to-use, step-by-step instructions to help solve your data-recovery problems, feel free to use the Data Recovery Forum.

It's really free?

You are legally entitled to obtain and use this software for any purpose. You are entitled to share this software with anyone. To redistribute the software, you must make it available under the same conditions under which you have obtained it.

Who put this together?

Each individual software application has it's own development team of people. The Rescue Remix is a project supported by:

Andrew Zajac

https://launchpad.net/~arzajac

http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=844

http://andrewzajac.ca/

If you are able to help out, you are welcome to join the Rescue-Remix team!