Pen drives as portable computers

wdhpr · 24. Jan 2010, 07:32 PM

The best thing I like about pen drives. You can take your stuff with you. Your email and browser are all set the way you want them. Family pictures and video's as well as your favorite application available on the fly. This all fits on something you can carry on your key chain.
The part that I like the best is hearing your friends say (all that on that little thing)
Pen drives are very cheap now. I see 4 gig pen drives selling for $19 US all the time. There are many free portable application launchers being developed.
So far I am using and sticking with Portable Apps. http://portableapps.com/ (works well in linux using wine)
Cameo being one recently mentioned on this forum. http://cameo.binarybums.com/download.htm (I haven't tried yet) Has some great screen shots though.
Remember Application launchers like these require a host operating system like Windows to operate.

Puppy linux is very cool. I know Ubuntu and other linux distro's allow you to boot off a pen drive, however IMHO none do it better than Puppy linux. You can install Puppy on a pen drive 2 ways. Both ways boot off the pen drive. You can install it to leave files on your hard drive giving it a larger storage capacity. This will also allow Puppy to run faster.
The second way (the way I use Puppy) Uses the computer memory only and will not write files to the hard drive. After you shut down it will then write any changes to your pen drive. I am using a 1 gig pen drive for Puppy linux and I still have 500 megs of storage left. Puppy is very light and weighs in at 140 megs. Very nice to have if a friend needs help accessing a computer that won't boot.

Cheers
Wdhpr

Ritho · 25. Jan 2010, 05:21 AM

Long ago, back in the "dark" days, that is before the bright birth of our site here, I remember Gizmo himself writing in his newsletter about going laptop-less (Thankfully not just top-less!

) on vacation with just a pen drive. Portable apps have made a lot of progress since then. I doubt the days will ever come when all Windows programs are as simple as 1. Download 2. Unzip anywhere you want and 3. Run it, but there has certainly been a lot of apps that have joined the no-install-necessary ranks.

"Long ago.....?" Okay I know it has only been a couple of years or so, but it sure feels like a long time. It would be interesting to find out how many of our users/members here used to be original subscribers to the TechSupportAlert Newsletter.

miskairal · 25. Jan 2010, 07:54 AM

I have just returned from a week away where I took hundreds of photos of my brand spanking new granddaughter. I had my browser on my USB along with a portable email programme and other bits and pieces but forgot to take a graphics editor. All I wanted to do was send some cropped and resized baby pics to my Mum and do you think I could achieve that on my daughter in law's pc? Nope. Next time I will be taking photofiltre (or similar) with me.

It really is wonderful to have all your own bookmarks and other favourite software with you though and so much more convenient than taking a whole laptop/netbook.

Ritho · 25. Jan 2010, 10:19 AM

@ Miskairal would you do something for me? As a portable apps user, would you compare Photofiltre portable, with Sunlitgreen PhotoEdit and let me know which one would have met your needs the best.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime...Portable.shtml
I am afraid that having used advanced programs for so long, I have a hard time judging what an average user might be interested in.

I ran across Sunlightgreen's programs recently and they look pretty good. I have been thinking of including a good portable app in my Best Free Digital Image Editor reviews.

Anybody have another portable image editor they like?

bibzgi · 28. Apr 2011, 12:50 AM

For most of my adult life I used a Microsoft Windows operating system.

About six months ago, I reluctantly switched to a Linux OS (namely Ubuntu) because the MS OS was crashing like crazy.

About six days ago, I reluctantly switched to Puppy.because I can mess up even the best operating systems.

Puppy is weird. I never heard of an OS that runs off of RAM. It seems to have everything needed, included encryption.

Jojoyee kindly recommended an online independent review of Puppy which helped me walk with the dog better. See: "distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20110418#feature"

wdhpr, I encourage you to start this topic under the freeware fourm "Linux"! The subject is beyond debate, it's a worthy candidate for the Linux forum.

Ritho, I don't know the percentage of people who originally subscribed to the newsletter. I was one. but I never read the articles in detail.

For me, the subject of MBR (sp?) is difficult. Puppy on a pendrive or even a CD helps to get back to a functional internet-connected operating system and mess more around, ha ha.

At the very least, I would recommend Puppy on a spare pen drive for when the computer operating system cannot boot up. Puppy is remarkably indestructible.

miskairal · 28. Apr 2011, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ritho

@ Miskairal would you do something for me? As a portable apps user, would you compare Photofiltre portable, with Sunlitgreen PhotoEdit and let me know which one would have met your needs the best.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime...Portable.shtml

I am so sorry Ritho, I didn't see your post until now. Looking at the date it is when my sweet little dog was killed by wild dogs and I was a bit of a mess for a long time after. I shall do as you ask over the weekend I hope and get back to you. I am familiar with GIMP as well but don't like to use it just to crop and resize. In fact I have tried many freebies over the years for this simple chore but always return to Photofiltre.

Ritho · 28. Apr 2011, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miskairal

I am so sorry Ritho, I didn't see your post until now. Looking at the date it is when my sweet little dog was killed by wild dogs and I was a bit of a mess for a long time after. I shall do as you ask over the weekend I hope and get back to you. I am familiar with GIMP as well but don't like to use it just to crop and resize. In fact I have tried many freebies over the years for this simple chore but always return to Photofiltre.

Thanks, it is/was no big deal. To tell the truth I had totally forgotton this post and about Sunlitgreen or I would have just tried it out myself. I think it was something I had just run across at the time an was on my mind when I read your post.

miskairal · 30. Apr 2011, 10:57 PM

Sunlightgreen is a nifty little programme Ritho especially for simply cropping and resizing. It did ask me to install something.....to do with faces....but it was simply a choice of clicking OK or cancel to leave it out (no checkboxes to uncheck). The only thing that Photofiltre has, and sunlight does not, that I do occasionally use is the ability to add text to pics.

rikishi19 · 02. May 2011, 12:43 AM

I've never used those two mentioned programs before, but IrfanView is another one to add into the hat, for simple editing functions such as cropping and resizing.

bibzgi · 07. Sep 2011, 11:24 AM

A pen drive or any flash drive with a persistent operating system is useful.

If the computer's operating system cannot boot up, a flash drive OS should detect its files to save and maybe even get the boot up problem fixed.

Of course, important files should always be saved with encryption on the cloud.

A pen drive OS that works from RAM and has encryption is comparatively more secure than a hard drive OS.

A good pen drive OS can be used on most computers, old and new.

I highly recommend puppy wary. It is the only portable os that I've been able to use to easily get connected to the internet.

24. Jan 2010, 07:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
wdhpr Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: The north Coast Posts: 1,117	Pen drives as portable computers The best thing I like about pen drives. You can take your stuff with you. Your email and browser are all set the way you want them. Family pictures and video's as well as your favorite application available on the fly. This all fits on something you can carry on your key chain. The part that I like the best is hearing your friends say (all that on that little thing) Pen drives are very cheap now. I see 4 gig pen drives selling for $19 US all the time. There are many free portable application launchers being developed. So far I am using and sticking with Portable Apps. http://portableapps.com/ (works well in linux using wine) Cameo being one recently mentioned on this forum. http://cameo.binarybums.com/download.htm (I haven't tried yet) Has some great screen shots though. Remember Application launchers like these require a host operating system like Windows to operate. Puppy linux is very cool. I know Ubuntu and other linux distro's allow you to boot off a pen drive, however IMHO none do it better than Puppy linux. You can install Puppy on a pen drive 2 ways. Both ways boot off the pen drive. You can install it to leave files on your hard drive giving it a larger storage capacity. This will also allow Puppy to run faster. The second way (the way I use Puppy) Uses the computer memory only and will not write files to the hard drive. After you shut down it will then write any changes to your pen drive. I am using a 1 gig pen drive for Puppy linux and I still have 500 megs of storage left. Puppy is very light and weighs in at 140 megs. Very nice to have if a friend needs help accessing a computer that won't boot. Cheers Wdhpr

25. Jan 2010, 05:21 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ritho Foundation Editor Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Planet Earth Posts: 1,391	Long ago, back in the "dark" days, that is before the bright birth of our site here, I remember Gizmo himself writing in his newsletter about going laptop-less (Thankfully not just top-less! ) on vacation with just a pen drive. Portable apps have made a lot of progress since then. I doubt the days will ever come when all Windows programs are as simple as 1. Download 2. Unzip anywhere you want and 3. Run it, but there has certainly been a lot of apps that have joined the no-install-necessary ranks. "Long ago.....?" Okay I know it has only been a couple of years or so, but it sure feels like a long time. It would be interesting to find out how many of our users/members here used to be original subscribers to the TechSupportAlert Newsletter. __________________ The smallest good deed is better than the greatest intention.

25. Jan 2010, 10:19 AM	#4 (permalink)
Ritho Foundation Editor Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Planet Earth Posts: 1,391	Aha! I just found a victim. @ Miskairal would you do something for me? As a portable apps user, would you compare Photofiltre portable, with Sunlitgreen PhotoEdit and let me know which one would have met your needs the best. http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime...Portable.shtml I am afraid that having used advanced programs for so long, I have a hard time judging what an average user might be interested in. I ran across Sunlightgreen's programs recently and they look pretty good. I have been thinking of including a good portable app in my Best Free Digital Image Editor reviews. Anybody have another portable image editor they like? __________________ The smallest good deed is better than the greatest intention.

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25. Jan 2010, 07:54 AM	#3 (permalink)
miskairal Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Qld, Australia Posts: 129	I have just returned from a week away where I took hundreds of photos of my brand spanking new granddaughter. I had my browser on my USB along with a portable email programme and other bits and pieces but forgot to take a graphics editor. All I wanted to do was send some cropped and resized baby pics to my Mum and do you think I could achieve that on my daughter in law's pc? Nope. Next time I will be taking photofiltre (or similar) with me. It really is wonderful to have all your own bookmarks and other favourite software with you though and so much more convenient than taking a whole laptop/netbook.

28. Apr 2011, 12:50 AM	#5 (permalink)
bibzgi Full Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 60	For most of my adult life I used a Microsoft Windows operating system. About six months ago, I reluctantly switched to a Linux OS (namely Ubuntu) because the MS OS was crashing like crazy. About six days ago, I reluctantly switched to Puppy.because I can mess up even the best operating systems. Puppy is weird. I never heard of an OS that runs off of RAM. It seems to have everything needed, included encryption. Jojoyee kindly recommended an online independent review of Puppy which helped me walk with the dog better. See: "distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20110418#feature" wdhpr, I encourage you to start this topic under the freeware fourm "Linux"! The subject is beyond debate, it's a worthy candidate for the Linux forum. Ritho, I don't know the percentage of people who originally subscribed to the newsletter. I was one. but I never read the articles in detail. For me, the subject of MBR (sp?) is difficult. Puppy on a pendrive or even a CD helps to get back to a functional internet-connected operating system and mess more around, ha ha. At the very least, I would recommend Puppy on a spare pen drive for when the computer operating system cannot boot up. Puppy is remarkably indestructible.

30. Apr 2011, 10:57 PM	#8 (permalink)
miskairal Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Qld, Australia Posts: 129	Sunlightgreen is a nifty little programme Ritho especially for simply cropping and resizing. It did ask me to install something.....to do with faces....but it was simply a choice of clicking OK or cancel to leave it out (no checkboxes to uncheck). The only thing that Photofiltre has, and sunlight does not, that I do occasionally use is the ability to add text to pics.

02. May 2011, 12:43 AM	#9 (permalink)
rikishi19 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 107	I've never used those two mentioned programs before, but IrfanView is another one to add into the hat, for simple editing functions such as cropping and resizing.

07. Sep 2011, 11:24 AM	#10 (permalink)
bibzgi Full Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 60	A pen drive or any flash drive with a persistent operating system is useful. If the computer's operating system cannot boot up, a flash drive OS should detect its files to save and maybe even get the boot up problem fixed. Of course, important files should always be saved with encryption on the cloud. A pen drive OS that works from RAM and has encryption is comparatively more secure than a hard drive OS. A good pen drive OS can be used on most computers, old and new. I highly recommend puppy wary. It is the only portable os that I've been able to use to easily get connected to the internet.