DIY Forensics & Incident Response Lab - link
“Regarding forensic software, so much is already out there, both free and commercial. If you're just getting started, take a look at Harlan's list and try out the Caine forensic and IR LiveCD, which contains all you need to get your feet wet. IT shops that have already purchased forensic packages, like FTK and Encase, can easily install it in the lab at no additional cost provided they use their existing licensing dongle when not in use for an actual case.”

John H. Sawyer, senior security engineer on the IT Security Team at the University of Florida.

Windows FE “Live CD” Posts Followup - link
“Curiously, and not noted in the test, was the fact that I tried local installation of Helix, RAPTOR, and DEFT forensic Linux builds on the test system’s hard drive. All three balked during the drive preparation process, despite my successful manual creation of the ext3 and swap partitions manually in their installers. Only the CAINE Live CD allowed me to install itself locally with no issues or complaints.”

From Claus Valca blog.

Applied Information Security book (future publication)
“CAINE is a distribution focused on IT Forensics. It is a good learning environment for beginning users. CAINE has intuitive interfaces, a variety of functionality, and good reporting/documentation tools. Most IT Forensics suites are quite expensive and require a fair amount of training. A free tool like CAINE that has good collection, analysis, and reporting tools is invaluable for someone just starting out in the field.”

Dr. Randall Boyle, professor at the University of Utah.

CAINE ISO has reached 1500 downloads, and the new entry NBCAINE is currently at 120 downloads!