Showing posts with label portableapps suite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portableapps suite. Show all posts

24 November 2006

Open Source-y Gift Guide

Here's a handy list from Make, with a bunch of open source-y things, many of which have been mentioned before in these posts. Still, I'd like to single out the PortableApps Suite - happiness on a thumb drive:

PortableApps Suite (Standard Edition): ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Firefox Portable (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Sunbird Portable (calendar/task manager) and Thunderbird Portable (email client) and runs comfortably from a 512MB drive.

Installation and use are easy.

14 July 2006

PortableApps.com - Open Source on a Stick

One of the many benefits of open source is that it allows people to experiment. In particular, it lets people try out all sorts of whacky ideas that would simply be stifled at birth had they involved closed source. A good example is Portable Firefox, which consists of a slightly-modified version of the free browser such that it can be placed on a USB drive and run from it, without needing any further installation.

I knew that this had spawned things like Portable Thunderbird, which does the same thing for Mozilla's email client, but I hadn't realised that things had gone much further. For there is now a site called PortableApps.com, run by the person behind Portable Firefox, John Haller.

And what a cornucopia of a site it is. In addition to portable versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, you also find "ports" of OpenOffice.org, the IM client GAIM, the Web site editor NVu and the anti-virus program ClamWin. There's even a mini LAMP stack - though this is without the GNU/Linux part. However, the PortableApps site indicates that portable operating systems are on their way.

The software on this site represents quite a significant achievement, because it means that you can literally carry around in your pocket all the main apps that you need on a USB drive. Provided you can find a PC with a USB socket you can start working as if it were your machine.