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What was the first Ubuntu release which features the bootable live CD option which makes it possible to run the OS without installing it?

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It started with Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

The live CD allows you to try Ubuntu without changing your computer at all.

The desktop CD allows you to try Ubuntu without changing your computer at all, and at your option to install it permanently later. This type of CD is what most people will want to use. You will need at least 256MB of RAM to install from this CD.Ubuntu 4.10

6.06 was the first Ubuntu release whose live CD image would install the OS.

Thanks to Eliah Kagan for the corrected info

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    And it was one of the best design decisions. Thank you Knoppix :)
    – Rinzwind
    Sep 5, 2014 at 13:18
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Every Ubuntu release has had a live CD feature. Live images were always functional, but over time they have risen in prominence and usefulness, especially over the course of the first several releases.

4.10

The first release ever of Ubuntu was 4.10 Warty Warthog. As detailed in the release announcement and download archive, installation and live CD images existed separately. The live CD did not support installing the system, and the install CDs were not live.

There was also no 64-bit live CD. (Though the 32-bit live CD, as in later versions, worked on both 32-bit and 64-bit PCs.)

Live CD

The live CD allows you to try Ubuntu without changing your computer at all. There is one image available:

For almost all PCs. This includes most machines with Intel/AMD/etc type processors and almost all computers that run Microsoft Windows. ....

From the 4.10 download page.

Ubuntu 4.10 Warty Warthog live CD boot loader, boot splash, GNOME loading screen, and GNOME desktop
Ubuntu 4.10 Warty Warthog live CD boot loader, boot splash, GNOME loading screen, and GNOME desktop

5.04

5.04 Hoary Hedgehog came next. It had live CDs for 32-bit and 64-bit PCs and for PPC Macs (the three architectures Ubuntu supported at that time). According to its release notes, it was the first GNU/Linux distro "to offer Live CDs for all three architectures simultaneously."

Like 4.10, the installation CD images for 5.04 were not live.

However, as can be seen on the 5.04 download page, there was also a 5.04 DVD. Like the CD and DVD images that came later, the 5.04 DVD images were live and offered the ability to install Ubuntu. And like the live CD and install CD images, the live/install DVD images were provided for all three supported architectures.

Back then, the DVD images contained two separate modes. Installing from a DVD was not graphical, and the system could not be installed from within the live environment (without rebooting the DVD). Thus even these images did not correspond to the "desktop CD" images we use today.

The 4.10 DVD images are not archived on http://old-releases.ubuntu.com, but their .list and .manifest files are there, documenting their existence. For example:

ubuntu-5.04-dvd-amd64.list           07-Apr-2005 16:40  188K  Install/live DVD for AMD64 computers (file listing)

From the file listing on the 5.04 download page.

(See also 5.04's MD5SUMS file, which includes hashes for the DVD images.)

5.10

5.10 Breezy Badger came next. (Announcement, release notes.) Like 5.04, 5.10 had separate live CD and install CD images, as well as DVD images that would do both (and images of all three types existed for all three supported architectures).

5.10's DVD images exist today, alongside the other image types, in the archive.

I mention 5.10 mainly because it was the first release to have separate server installation images. Like the install images, these were not live. They are significant to this topic because the server ISOs would eventually became the only full-size non-live installation ISO images.

6.06 LTS

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Dapper Drake (announcement, release notes) was a major step forward in the way Ubuntu ISO images were made.

Previous releases had separate live CD ISOs (which would not install) and install CD ISOs (which were not live). Instead, 6.06 offered:

  • a desktop CD, which was both live and usable to install the OS (and was the generally recommended way to install the OS), and
  • an alternate CD, which was not live and resembled the "install CD" images of previous releases.

(6.06 also continued to offer a bigger live/install DVD image, as in 5.04 and 5.10. All three image types plus the server images, for all architectures, can be accessed today on the archived download page.)

The desktop CDs used the new Ubiquity graphical installer (6.06 was the first release to use it). This allowed Ubuntu to be installed from the same environment in which it was being used live.

In contrast, even the DVD images (of 6.06, and in previous releases 5.04 and 5.10) provided live and installation functionality separately. For live mode, you'd type the live boot option on start.

By then, Ubuntu supported some additional architectures besides 32- and 64-bit PCs and PPC Macs: HP PA-RISC and IA-64. There were no live CDs on these architectures (so the alternate CD, or the server CD, had to be used).

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS established the way we usually install Ubuntu today — with a desktop CD that combines and integrates a live environment and an installer.

Ubuntu 6.04.1 LTS Dapper Drake live CD boot loader, boot splash, and GNOME desktop screenshots with About Ubuntu and Ubiquity installer
Ubuntu 6.04.1 LTS Dapper Drake live CD boot loader, boot splash, and GNOME desktop with About Ubuntu and Ubiquity

Ubuntu 6.04.1 LTS Dapper Drake live CD – zoomed view showing live desktop with the Ubiquity installer running
Ubuntu 6.04.1 LTS Dapper Drake live CD – zoomed view showing live desktop with the Ubiquity installer running

12.10

Every release from Ubuntu 6.06 LTS to 12.04 LTS (announcement, release notes) had desktop, alternate, and server CD images — and a separate, bigger DVD image.

Starting in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal (announcement, release notes), the alternate CD image was discontinued. This was also the first release whose desktop images would not (ordinarily) fit on a CD, and had to be burned to a DVD or written to a USB flash drive. Separate DVD images were discontinued as of 12.10, too.

The Ubuntu desktop images have been consolidated to a single improved image with a size of 800MB. This desktop image folds in the advanced partitioning options from the alternate installer (removing the need for alternate and DVD images) and introduces support for UEFI Secure Boot technology. The Ubuntu Server image remains as a CD sized image, but installs the base system from a squashfs image for improved performance.

From the release announcement "Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) released!" by Kate Stewart.

For more information, see the 12.10 download page. (Note also that the cdimage.ubuntu.com download page for 12.10 has no DVD, image, only server images for the community-supported OMAP3 and PPC architectures.)

Although the alternate CD is gone, users wishing to install Ubuntu non-graphically may still use the Server CD or (as may be preferable for non-server systems) the tiny Minimal CD (mini.iso).

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