Ubuntu Portable Apps?

[bibzgi]

Dear TSA fellows,

I used a few portable apps for a while before I switched from Windows to Ubuntu recently. They were great for privacy and backup, and they ran fast.

I'm talking especially about the two Mozilla standalones, Firefox and Thunderbird.

I love those two standalone programs and instead of having to go through all sorts of cleanup programs that sometimes crashed my computer and instead of doing tedious backup to the cloud (back up what?) the standalones don't need much cleanup (as I keep them on a TrueCrypt encrypted file that opens up as a drive - check out TrueCrypt if you are unfamiliar with it) blah blah.

Also the standalone openoffice rocks.

The aforementioned standalones work splendidly in the Ubuntu linux operating system with the assistance of "Wine".

But a certain other standalone program I've had difficulty with in the Ubuntu OS, namely "Skype" the instant messenger program. It crashes again and again.

Also, Thunderbird standalone seems more limited in Ubuntu.

Does anyone reading use portable Skype in linux?

Where are resources for portable apps in Ubuntu if any?

Any feedback appreciated. Hope my situation was explained clearly enough.

TSA rules!

[Ritho]

I think there has been more focus on making the OS itself portable, than making the apps portable. At the same time many linux apps can be just decompressed from a tar file and run, as long as all their dependancies are fullfilled. I believe you could make many if not most linux apps portable and even able to run on other distros if you if you include all the dependancies it needs.

Here is a portable app site you can look at, and in the forums they discuss how to make your own http://portablelinuxapps.org/

You might also find this article interesting. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/p...m-a-usb-drive/

[Ritho]

Bibzgi about Skype portable. I downloaded the portabel skype from portablelinuxapps.org, and ran it. It ran beutifully under Linux Mint 10 so it should run just just fine under Ubuntu 10.10. In fact strangely enough I think the portable version works better than my native installed version.

[bibzgi]

Ritho thank you for that link! It has other portable apps I want to download too.

My original Skype portable was from I believe portableapps.com and it was geared toward Windows. Firefox also was, but worked fine with the so-called "Wine" program in Ubuntu that has some basic Windows features.

I'm primarily interested in backing up several encrypted portable apps to the cloud, the apps that contain my email, chat history, docs, etc.

I want to check out Linux Mint in time but with just one laptop in my possession I will have to partition the hard drive and set up a dual-boot. Right now I'm still getting used to this Ubuntu OS.

You're always so helpful in the forums, Ritho, and you put things in layman language.

[wdhpr]

I can run a complete operating system booting straight off a USB stick.
Does that qualify as portable?

[bibzgi]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

I can run a complete operating system booting straight off a USB stick.
Does that qualify as portable?

Excellent, wdhpr!

I'm interested in how you did it. Can you have your os on a USB stick? Don't you have to have some kind of OS on the computer for it to run?

If you have time, please offer some details.

My thingy is to back up on the so-called "cloud", back up my important files on free internet sources like adrive and many others.

Can a linux os be run off a USB stick without hitches?

[Jojoyee]

This article Make Your Own Customized Bootable Linux Live CD (or USB Stick) might help.

[wdhpr]

I can personally endorse Puppy Linux. I've have it on a 2 gig USB stick and it runs flawlessly.
However You must understand that not all computers support booting off a USB stick also referred to as a flash drive. Go to this website Pendrivelinux.com It will give you the needed information for installing various Linux distro's on your USB stick
I would advised you first read the help files HERE This will help explain what a persistent file is. (it allows you to save your changes to you USB stick) It will also helps you check to see if your computer supports booting from a USB stick. This PAGE shows you how to install Puppy Linux on you USB stick.
The whole process took me about 20 minutes to complete. I thinks it is also a great way to try Linux without using a live CD (slow) or installing it to your hardrive. When running Puppy in persistent mode it does not writes to the hard drive its all written to memory.
You may want to look at Wubi (allows you to install Ubuntu to run inside your Windows OS) This is good for those that don't want to commit to making a separate partition for Ubuntu

Don't you have to have some kind of OS on the computer for it to run?

As far as I know. (never tried it with a computer without an OS) Running Puppy Linux from your USB stick in persistent mode does not require a supporting OS.

Wdhpr

[wdhpr]

USB stick= FlashDrive,ThumbDrive and Pendrive

[Ritho]

I would also point out that it is fully possible to make a portable version of Ubuntu that can run from inside of a windows install using Cygwin. Here is one implementation of it. It seems that their main site no longer exists. http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableubuntu/

Here is a lifehacker article on it. http://lifehacker.com/5195999/portab...inside-windows