The Rails Live CD project was born on Ezra Zygmuntowicz' blog and realized with help from Brian Ketelsen. It is based on PCLinuxOS and released under the GNU Public License. The following is a partial list of the contents of the CD:
Ruby 1.8.4
Rails 1.1.2
Capistrano 1.1.0
Mongrel 0.3.13
Rake 0.7.1
Subversion
MySQL 4.1.12
MySQL Administrator
RadRails
You can set your computer to boot first from CD and try this Ruby on Rails specific distribution of Linux without altering your computer at all. You can also run RailsLiveCD in Qemu, VMWare or Parallels Desktop/Workstation. With a few simple commands you can save all your changes to your environment to a USB Key, floppy or folder on your local hard drive. Or, you can use the RailsLiveCD to take the plunge and install Linux directly on your system. The RailsLiveCD offers an installation wizard that allows you to repartition your hard drive and install Linux directly to your computer.*
Friendly and helpful guides and tutorials are planned for future releases of the RailsLiveCD. The project is currently looking for contributions from the community.