Portable Fast Operating System

Share interesting information or links related to portable apps here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
guinness
Posts: 4118
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:00 am
Contact:

Portable Fast Operating System

#1 Post by guinness »

I came across this today - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-cust ... stem-slax/ about creating a Portable Operating System using Slax!

User avatar
SYSTEM
Posts: 2041
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:19 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#2 Post by SYSTEM »

Well, there is a much easier way to make most GNU/Linux distributions portable.

The distro I chose in May 2009 is Kubuntu. I installed it normally (booted my computer from the install disc, etc.) to my external SSD drive (that later stopped working :( ).

There was just one catch: in the final pre-install screen (screenshot of the equivalent screen in Ubuntu 10.10) I had to click Advanced and select that the GRUB bootloader would be installed to the external disk. (Otherwise booting either GNU/Linux or Windows would have required that both the internal and external drive are present.)

The resulting Kubuntu installation was fully portable. :)
My YouTube channel | Release date of my 13th playlist: August 24, 2020

stevegutry
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:20 am

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#3 Post by stevegutry »

You might want to look at "Puppy Linux" It is about 100Mb to download & has some quite good programs pre-loaded.

atomizer
Posts: 69
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:58 am

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#4 Post by atomizer »

off topic i think, but i wonder if anyone is aware of ReactOS?

it's an open source NT compatible OS that i've been keeping an eye on for years - very interesting project. unfortunately, the development process seems to be agonizing slow to the point where i'm not sure if i'll see a stable 1.0 release before i'm dead :?

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#5 Post by webfork »

creating a Portable Operating System using Slax!
Assuming Slax has the network device drivers that match the computer you're on, its perfect for doing basic work on a public computer without wondering if you have spyware on the OS that will steal your information.
atomizer wrote:i wonder if anyone is aware of ReactOS
Unfortunately my experiences with it were not very positive. Its much better to run Linux with WINE. The hope was that it would open up the Windows operating system, but Microsoft continues to make later versions of windows and software incompatible with previous versions of Windows. When you make a Windows-compatible system that can't run even somewhat recent Windows software, that's a hard thing to solve. ReactOS it seems will always be playing catch-up.

atomizer
Posts: 69
Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:58 am

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#6 Post by atomizer »

webfork wrote:...ReactOS it seems will always be playing catch-up.
because of the slow dev cycle, this is my thought exactly. i think it's an utterly fantastic idea though - can you imagine the interest a FREE NT compatible would generate! i wish them well

User avatar
m^(2)
Posts: 890
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:38 am
Location: Kce,PL
Contact:

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#7 Post by m^(2) »

webfork wrote:
creating a Portable Operating System using Slax!
Assuming Slax has the network device drivers that match the computer you're on, its perfect for doing basic work on a public computer without wondering if you have spyware on the OS that will steal your information.
Depending on how paranoid you are, you can have spyware everywhere. Your OS can be loader in some hypervisor that logs everything. There are hardware keyloggers. There are cameras. But normally it doesn't matter.
And if sb. really wants to spy on you (or just have more control), you won't be able to boot your OS anyway.

donald
Posts: 561
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:14 am
Location: knoxville TN USA

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#8 Post by donald »

@ guinness Puppy Linux is able to do everything mentioned in your article

Puppy is modular, and can be used to build your own version, an enormous amount of software has been packaged for easy installation in a zip extension (call pet)

Puppy is incredibly fast as the entire Operating System loads to RAM and thus no seek wait or read write delays.

With a persistent install you will be asked if you want to save changes, and with a Live install
you will also be asked if you want to store setting as puppy is capable of storing settings, and changes (in puppy) to the host PC.

A growing number of Operating Systems, are capable of creating a flash install,
and more of those are able to allow you to configure the operating system before saving it.

On the website are several programs for creating Live and or Persistent Installs of various Operating Systems on your flash-drive.

They are found under the category Others - Live USB Creator.

They include LiLi USB Creator, Universal USB Installer, UNetbootin, and Image Writer for Windows

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Portable Fast Operating System

#9 Post by webfork »

donald wrote:Puppy Linux is able to do everything mentioned in your article
I've had better success over time with Slax than Puppy although I tested both on only a few systems so this may not be your experience at all. Puppy however is one of the few distros actively trying to remain small, simple and fully functional on old hardware. If I still had a need (I used Slax for doing tech support on a few occasions), I'd try to carry both.
m^(2) wrote:Depending on how paranoid you are, you can have spyware everywhere. Your OS can be loader in some hypervisor that logs everything.
Certainly. However, assuming that the attacker is unskilled or accidental (spyware installed via IE) its a solid defense.


Post Reply