We need portable apps, portability between OSs, and security

[teobromina]

I remember one of my first posts dealing with the lema "Portable freeware is good but portable data is still better": http://portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1212.

I am looking for a 'shorcut' to be able to work at office with Windows and at home with Linux.

Therefore I need portable apps, portability between OSs, and security for the data transport.

The issue is not easy. I am maintaining a database to have an idea of how many of our portable apps run on Linux Live Slax Killbill edition (a nice Linux that does not need to be installed on a hard disk, thus it is portable too), under emulation (Slax Killbill has Wine installed, a WINdows Emulator).

I succeed to use Truecrypt on Slax. http://www.truecrypt.org/ This gave me the possibility to bring files safe into a Truecrypt container and open the container on both OSs (Windows and Linux). The problem is that, in Linux, Truecrypt is still at a stage of development that only can run in comandline mode. This is not good for a regular Windows user.

I tried to bring files closed into a ZIP file. FreeCommander is able to zip folders. The problem is that if you do not want that anybody can see the name of the files into a zip, you need to zip it twice (.ZIP.ZIP), the first time can go without encryption and the second time you can encrypt it... This solution is not good: I could not open any of these files encrypted on Windows, when I tried it later on Linux.

Then I tried to ZIP myfiles folder once with FreeCommander, without encryption, and encrypt later the ZIP file with Neocrypt. http://neocrypt.sourceforge.net/index.p ... wnload.xml I succeed in Windows but encountered inconsistencies in Linux (I could see the files into the folder but I could not open none of them).

Finally I succeed with another simple encrypting app: RipCoder. http://ripcoder.softonic.com/ [moderator note: recommend avoiding softonic downloads.] This small app is able to run perfectly on Windows and on Slax Killbill, making possible to transport an encrypted ZIP file with a folder of sensitive data without risk to be seen by anyone that finds your lost pendrive, and open the encrypted ZIP file in any of two OSs (Windows and Linux). So it seems the better way (for now) to use portable apps in both Systems.

To be continued...

[LPChip]

Sorry to bring up an older topic, but have you considered looking for different programs for both OS's that allow you to do the same task, so you can try to export your database to a file that you can open with a windows program and export back to that file.

It might allow you to get what you're after.

[teobromina]

Sorry to bring up an older topic, but have you considered looking for different programs for both OS's that allow you to do the same task, so you can try to export your database to a file that you can open with a windows program and export back to that file.

It might allow you to get what you're after.

Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, LPChip, this is exactly what I have done from the time when the message you are answering was issused until now. For more details look to the thread where I posted the result of my 'research', here in our forum:

viewtopic.php?t=2233 .

The subject of the present (and older) thread was more related to the 'transport' of valuable data to use in both OS: Windows at the office and Linux at home. And is still up to date, from my point of view.

Regards.

*JT.

[Blackhouse]

The subject of the present (and older) thread was more related to the 'transport' of valuable data to use in both OS: Windows at the office and Linux at home. And is still up to date, from my point of view.

You have a Linux box at home. Use (Win)SCP to transport your data! Transport is encrypted and you don't have to worry about loosing your memory sticks with all your valuable data.