Comments on: Running Ubuntu from a Flash Drive http://techticker.net/2008/05/17/running-ubuntu-from-a-flash-drive/ educational technology, eLearning & emerging technology Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:56:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Mike Bogle http://techticker.net/2008/05/17/running-ubuntu-from-a-flash-drive/#comment-130 Mike Bogle Mon, 19 May 2008 00:09:32 +0000 http://mbogle.wordpress.com/?p=1619#comment-130 Hi Steve, I'm with you. I don't know how realistic or useful running an OS off a flash drive really is. I just thought it was an interesting prospect worth exploring - if nothing else just for the tinkering potential. That said I do see two possible exceptions where this sort of solution might be warranted: a) The first would be the hardcore <a href="http://www.fsf.org/" rel="nofollow">FSF</A> type who won't touch proprietary software with a 10 foot pole. In this case they might prefer a slower computing experience to a proprietary one. b) The second might be someone who uses SSH a great deal and needs to have their key with them. Then again I don't know much about SSH, so there might be easier ways to login from public/borrowed computers. Aside from that, as you say, there's so much you can do online these days that you wouldn't even need a flash drive much of the time. For example, I store all of my bookmarks online, use Google Docs for files I need regular access to, store photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube, use a blog for my journal thoughts, wikis for collaborative endeavors etcetera. Cheers, Mike Hi Steve,

I’m with you. I don’t know how realistic or useful running an OS off a flash drive really is. I just thought it was an interesting prospect worth exploring - if nothing else just for the tinkering potential.

That said I do see two possible exceptions where this sort of solution might be warranted:

a) The first would be the hardcore FSF type who won’t touch proprietary software with a 10 foot pole. In this case they might prefer a slower computing experience to a proprietary one.

b) The second might be someone who uses SSH a great deal and needs to have their key with them. Then again I don’t know much about SSH, so there might be easier ways to login from public/borrowed computers.

Aside from that, as you say, there’s so much you can do online these days that you wouldn’t even need a flash drive much of the time.

For example, I store all of my bookmarks online, use Google Docs for files I need regular access to, store photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube, use a blog for my journal thoughts, wikis for collaborative endeavors etcetera.

Cheers,

Mike

]]> By: unique_stephen http://techticker.net/2008/05/17/running-ubuntu-from-a-flash-drive/#comment-129 unique_stephen Sun, 18 May 2008 23:55:14 +0000 http://mbogle.wordpress.com/?p=1619#comment-129 I've a 4gb usb drive (~$40 from Dick Smith) that I have put a few different instances of Linux on. Pendrive linux, Ubuntu Gutsy and Mandrake something. There are different ways of doing it - one that does not require you to boot but does require you to run a process on the host which restricts you to using a Windows platform. It was slow on my PC at home, similar to running Ubuntu from the CD. I wonder how useful it really is considering that you can use gmail and google docks on most machines. You cant rock up to an internet caff and start rebooting their machines and running whatever OS you like put you can, outside of china at least, simply login to your gmail account. What would be useful tho' would be some sort of onion skin routing, like Tore that you could use to encrypt and anonymise your traffic. I’ve a 4gb usb drive (~$40 from Dick Smith) that I have put a few different instances of Linux on. Pendrive linux, Ubuntu Gutsy and Mandrake something. There are different ways of doing it - one that does not require you to boot but does require you to run a process on the host which restricts you to using a Windows platform. It was slow on my PC at home, similar to running Ubuntu from the CD.
I wonder how useful it really is considering that you can use gmail and google docks on most machines. You cant rock up to an internet caff and start rebooting their machines and running whatever OS you like put you can, outside of china at least, simply login to your gmail account. What would be useful tho’ would be some sort of onion skin routing, like Tore that you could use to encrypt and anonymise your traffic.

]]>