That's right. Nowadays many linux CDs/DVDs/USB sticks start by booting into a live system, and then offer you to install it. Back in the days when Knoppix was

That's right. Nowadays many linux CDs/DVDs/USB sticks start by booting into a live system, and then offer you to install it. Back in the days when Knoppix was popular, the major distros only had normal installers, so you needed a free partition for installation (or resize an existing windows partition to make room, which was very risky).