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Portable Apps for Linux

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dkulchenko
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Portable Apps for Linux

I'm starting a new project: Portable Apps for Linux!!

I'll be having more details coming soon, including website, and other infromation.

Who's up for me?

John T. Haller
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Wanna do it here?

I'm already working on Firefox and Thunderbird (and I have the licensing permission from Mozilla to use the logos and official builds).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Preacher
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Pardon me,

John, but doesn't Firefox install by default on most Linux distros?

I have a slew of Live Linux distros, and nearly every one of 'em includes Linux.
That leads me to believe that it must be pretty "standard" to include it in the installable distros, no?...

And if I'm right on that point, then I'm not sure why anyone would want it as portable, since it's likely to be available on any Linux box they sit down in front of and use (IOW, that'd be like looking for a portable Internet Explorer - no need, since it's EVERYWHERE on Windoze boxes by default anyway...)

Unless, of course, I'm wrong on that point of it being standard for most installs...

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Bahamut
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I have a slew of Live Linux

I have a slew of Live Linux distros, and nearly every one of 'em includes Linux.
Uhhhh... wouldn't they all have Linux? Pardon

Vintage!

Ryan McCue
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I think

Preacher means Firefox Wink
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"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

Preacher
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Bonehead move...

...on my part.

D'oh! - how could I've let that get by me?..

Yes, you are correct; I meant to say "Firefox".

(That'll learn me to not proofread carefully enuff in the future...)

So anyway - now that that's cleared up - how about the question?

Ain't Firefox installed by default in most Linux distros *any*way?...

"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine

Ryan McCue
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Nope

Most of the ones I've used either have the Mozilla Suite or Konqueror.
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If you have any questions about the comment above, or anything, please don't hesitate to ask.

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

Patrick Patience
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Heh. Funny.

Linux comes on all my linux distro C.D.s too. Weird eh? Blum

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thedogpoundpalace
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One Reason...

I can think of one reason that I would want to have a portable version of either Mozilla Firefox or Thunderbird. And that is simply to have my settings, extensions(this one particularly), and bookmarks that I personally like to use so that they are always there. And(in the case of Thunderbird) I would have all MY messages.

Mickeyj4j
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now xmarks is ready

...deleted irrelevant...

An Old Irish Blessing
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MickeyJ4J

thevictor
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Not quite

Many distros with KDE (e.g. Kubuntu) would have Konqueror as the default browser, plus portable Firefox means portable settings, as someone pointed out.

Ph4n70m
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.

But they wont have your personal configuration, like your bookmarks, extensions, etc...

Mickeyj4j
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you can

Install an add-on like Foxmarks on each computer you use to keep your bookmarks and (optionally) passwords backed up and synchronized. If you're away from your computer, Foxmarks allows you to access your bookmarks online by logging into my.foxmarks.com.

foxmarks is now known as xmarks. google for more info.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

digitxp
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Weave

Or you can use Weave. That even syncs your open tabs!

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pbesso
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Reasons

I would love to see a native Linux port. It is dead handy to be able to move your email and settings around with you; especially if you are like me and change distros like dirty socks ;). I use 1.52 for windows and have been using it as my main browsing and email solution for quite some time. It works fine in Linux, but I am also a bit of a purist and woul love to see it ported.

jimmy72
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Some people would use a Linux

Some people would use a Linux operating system at multiple different places (not all their CPU) so this would be useful to have.

I don't have a short attention span. I just...oh look a kitty!

PCS
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*PORTABLE* app

Preacher, you're missing the point. It's a "PORTABLE" app; so that you can take your personal settings and data with you, and also leave nothing behind. Or, to run a faster, streamlined version from hard drive. Either method just like on Windows machines. Smile

>REALITY ERROR: UNIVERSE HALTED

Compman007
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Heres why you want it portable

If you don't want to type your password constantly you can save your cookies and all of the random data that you need to use it like you were at home. or if the computer ur on don't have it idk why though Firefox is beast.

In a world without fences and walls, Who needs Gates and Windows.

royholcomb
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I would like to...

I would like to be able to run my PortableApps on my Linux. My reason is that my pc runs 6 operating systems including Ubuntu Linux. Rather than have to duplicate all cookies, passwords, bookmarks, etc. on each and every one of them, it is so much easier to use PorableApps. Ditto with my scheduling apps and whatever else I like to share. I also use my PortableApps with my laptop when traveling or doing repairs and if the situation would arise I can use my PortableaApps on a friends computer if I need to. The only OS I have right now that I can't use my PortableApps on is Linux. I probably will never run Mac.

Devo
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Try Wine

Most of the apps run fine on Wine. Try that first and see if things work out for you. Running the apps through Wine is not completely supported, but most of them should work for you.

jamisonlofthouse
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Not me.

None of my apps worked on wine.

Jamison

ada101
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good idea...

if this happens I think you could put something like 3 versions of an old portable virtualbox on there(linux,windows,Mac) with XP or win2000 or a version of linux that way you wouldnt lose anything!
--------------------------------------------------------------
im talking about people with 32 gb hard drives
--------------------------------------------------------------

from ada101 Smile

I Still Like XP better even though I've got Windows 7

dkulchenko
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Sure!

Sure, John! I have a question, though: How do you the launcher?

Can you give me some information about creating the launcher and installer?

I'm up for the idea!
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John T. Haller
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At the moment

The launcher is simply a modified bash script based on a couple different folks' work. The installer is just a zip file. I need to bruch up on my C and Linux skills to write a proper one that supports the advanced features of the Windows one (intelligent startup, etc).

On the Windows side, it's written in NSIS and the installer is a 7-Zip self extractor (though this will be switching to an NSIS-based installer).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

dkulchenko
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Cool, will you have a

Cool, will you have a seperate site for Linux?

Can you e-mail me the scripts at some point? I'll be working on packaging and making apps portable. With linux, its easy, because I cna always build a program that is statically linked, so I will be able to make apps faster, and have a good list.

My e-mail is: s-dkulchenko@lwsd.org.

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dkulchenko
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Also

BTW, you know what a shar is? A shell archive? You could use that.

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dkulchenko
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Hmmm...

When will you have the Linux website ready? I'll work on the installer, and have program's going. Can you give me more information about this? Website, launcher? Thanks!

P.S. If you like, I can make the Linux project seperately, on my own website, and you have a link to it on PortableApps.Com. We can make the websites look identical except for different in the sense of Linux, and different programs.

P.P.S. How did you make the PortableApps website and graphics?
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Windows? They're what I look out of while running Linux! Smile

John T. Haller
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It'll be here

It'll start out in the development projects section (which never actually got released yet) and then move into the main directory with sep directories for Win and Linux. Eventually working on more universal apps that work across platforms.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

dkulchenko
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Hey!

What do you mean by universal apps?

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Simeon
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As John said

here, UniversalApps are Apps to be run everywhere (Windows, Linux, Mac).
So they are pretty cool.
BTW This link is worth listening to.

"Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." - Richard P. Feynman

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

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Have you seen mac-on-a-stick.

Look up mac-on-a-stick (MOS) https://portableapps.com/node/11181 check it out and see if you can use that as a base as both linux and mac are based on a unix based systems. you might get some inspiration or even beable to get what you want. i have not tried MOS in linux as have just stated getting into Ubuntu.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

Patrick Patience
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Sorry...

To interupt your "private" thread. Blum

But I'd just like to say, that I am.

P.U.M.P.E.D!

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dkulchenko
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Huh?

What do you mean?

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Patrick Patience
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Sorry...

Dots can be deceiving. I meant I am Excited. And, I have a request, I know it's kindof early, but here is it...

Tux Guitar

http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/

It's availible for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Only downside is it requires Java.

It would also be awesome to have it for Windows portably too. The lisense, LGPL, it availble on the webisite, and so are the authors of the program, forums, downloads etc.

It's basicially a Guitar Tab program. For writing your won electronic tab.

They also have a sourceforge page...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/tuxguitar/

And I believe the source code is also availble at one of the sites.

Please put some thought into this Smile

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Simeon
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I could help with testing

stuff on my SuSE 10.2

"Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." - Richard P. Feynman

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

dkulchenko
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Yay!

Well, here it is: [link removed]. It does not look like anything yet, but I'm working on it. Don't be surprised if you see 404s, blank pages, and no content. Again, I'm working on it. I'm expecting to have the site finished in a week, and at least 2 apps running by the end of the month.

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Windows? They're what I look out of while running Linux! Smile

[Self-promotional link removed by moderator JTH. Please re-read the forum guidelines.]

Ryan McCue
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Oh my god

Did you know that's exactly the name I have for my mini-launcher-thingy?
Deja Vu
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"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

dkulchenko
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HEY

Hey ,what gives? I posted a link to the Portable Apps for Linux and it got removed! What gives?

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Ryan McCue
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That'll be John

That would have been John.
It is, technically self-promotion, however I'm sure John will work something out with you about having them on this site.
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"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

John T. Haller
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Forum Guidelines

If you re-read the forum guidelines, you'll see that you can not self-promote your own stuff except for very specific instances when you may promote individual open source applications up to twice a month. At no point can you promote your own websites regardless of their nature. This is an across-the-board policy due to some issues in the past.

As I'd mentioned, I'll be setting up some projects for the Linux side of things soon and the Linux development will be hosted right here and discussed in the same development forums as the Windows apps. So, there's no need to create another website and promote it here.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Preacher
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I'm interested...

...in portable Linux apps, but I'd also love to be able to find a portable version/port of Konqueror that I can run off my thumb under Windows.
I realize it's a long shot, but that'd be schweet!

"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine

dkulchenko
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Maybe

http://www.danka.de/printpro/NX.html? Maybe John can make it Portable somehow?...

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Mickeyj4j
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I found a post somewhere......

I did find a post here somewhere about running a portable version of Linux called QemuPDLv1.1.0.exe look that up.

you could also Google: portable ubuntu (or any distro you want), how to run linux from inside windows. etc as well.

i have found that there are allot of people asking so many questions and there are so many forums about Linux that it can get confusing. maby John (and his team) could sort through them and delete any doubles its a headache.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

venkat
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PortableApps in Linux

I find the convenience of carrying my personal bookmarks in the Mobile Firefox on my USB stick to be a sufficient reason to wish that PortableApps is available in both Linux and Windows platforms... Ditto for all other stuff like OpenOffice, where I would love to have my own favourite set-ups available when I go out to work in a new Linux/Windows location...

solanus
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This is great! A step towards the PortableEverything.

I like to use Linux LiveCDs, such as Knoppix, to give me a completely separate environment to play in, but there's always some app that I wish had been included; and, you can't save bookmarks, docs, etc., on a LiveCD. With WINE, it's possible to run most of the PortableApps, but it would be much better if they were running natively.
UniversalApps combined with a LiveCD would be a beautiful marriage.

The child from this marriage could be a suite that includes a LiveDistro of Linux, and a collection of UniversalApps that boots and runs from a single >1GB flash drive.

Solanus, The East Wind

I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.

thedogpoundpalace
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Dual Boot

Hey, just one thing I feel compelled to say here. If you like linux that much, I highly suggest you dual-boot linux with your(I'm assuming windows) version of Windows. This is relatively easy to do, and you can find a wealth of information on it simply by searching "Dual-boot" from(I use google) probably any search engine. For a boot loader, I would personally recommend XOSL(an open-source boot loader), which while getting harder and harder to find anymore, as it's no longer developed, and thus no longer has an official page of its own, I found it here:
http://www2.arnes.si/~fkomar/xosl.org/home.html
The last release, all the source code, and the faq's are available from this website by navigation from the menu on the left of the website. Also, to do this, you will have to format you hard drive, and create partitions, which is commonly done with format and fdisk utilities. These can be found on Windows 95,98 and Dos install disks. As an alternative to all that mess, you can also find commercial software to format, partition, and dual-boot, most popular one being Partition Magic.

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Better yet

Better yet... use Grub... or Lilo. Most Distros come with these, and, if, in installation it doesn't detect all of your systems, you can set it up to show them on boot up. You can set everything as you want on:

/boot/grub/menu.lst

That is a text file that show all of your boot loader settings (in this case I am telling Grub settings).

For example, here is mine (made automatically by the installer and without the comments):

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=f210b32c-c274-4251-89dd-fcd065cabcd2 ro quiet splash locale=pt_PT
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
quiet
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=f210b32c-c274-4251-89dd-fcd065cabcd2 ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=f210b32c-c274-4251-89dd-fcd065cabcd2 ro quiet splash locale=pt_PT
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=f210b32c-c274-4251-89dd-fcd065cabcd2 ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

title		Ubuntu, memtest86+
root		(hd0,6)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

title		Other operating systems:
root

title		Windows NT/2000/XP (loader)
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

Blue is everything.

Mickeyj4j
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gparted

gparted is great for partitioning any hdd. allot of linux live cds now come with it.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

Mickeyj4j
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Refer my poste above.....

.....in regards to Pendrive linux

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

humpty
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Excellent

This is an excellent idea.

You need to decide on the supported architecture. e.g i386

The Apps are already available on some of the small distros e.g
DSL, Puppy, ..etc. Some of these apps are totally self contained,
meaning there are negligible dependencies, and all of the files
sit in one base directory (instead of scattered all over the OS).

For other Apps, the biggest problem is agreeing on a minumum set of
libraries which the target linux system is going to support.

rwald
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Updates?

Is this project still moving forward? Is there some development site I could check to see what betas are available, etc.? I've got basically every portable Windows app I could want, but aside from DSL and a LiveUSB version of Knoppix, I've got nothing for Linux.

Joble
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Portable Linux Apps

This sounds Awesome! I've been playing around with a portable Puppy version of Linux running with QEMU.

The virtual drive is not big enough to install the apps I want. Sure I could try UnionFS or some such thing, but just trying Linux, I wouldn't have a clue.

The good thing about Puppy is that it saves the virtual drive back to the USB on exit, so unlike most live-cds you can save stuff.

On the USB you could have your portable Puppy, and your PortableApps - only the ones you want - and run the whole thing in a Windows Environment with absolutely no risk of leaving any trace behind! Now that is AWESOME! I can't wait!

By the way, anyone wanting to try Linux for the first time, I've tried several and I'm split between two, Scientific Linux based on Red Hat Enterprise (handle's NTFS better than most) and PCLinuxOS based on Mandrake (handles my Hardware better than most but NTFS seems to be read only without some tweaking). Ubuntu is over rated in my opinion, was difficult to configure just to get working. All have live CDs available to try. Linux is FUN! And I don't need to buy a new computer with every new release!

I have to wonder how secure this really is on a public computer if it has a virus or key logger on it, since it is running as a windows process. I'd appreciate any feedback on that topic from anyone knowledgeable on the subject.

Have an Awesome Day!

José Pedro Arvela
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I think you're not understanding

The theme of this tread are Portable Apps For Linux. A Portable Linux is already on development, but this isn't the tread for it (I think it is DSL).

Did you ever tried Kubuntu? His setting manager is a Lot better than the Ubuntu one. Now, Linux is really FUN, and I'm using it on a old AMD Athlon XP Wink
 
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Joble
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I think you're not understanding

I am very enthusiastic about Portable Apps For Linux and Linux in general.
I was hoping to get feedback on any known (or unknown) security issues with running a portable linux with portable linux apps on an unsecured (public access) windows platform.

I haven't tried Kubuntu yet, but it's on my list. My favorite so far is Scientific Linux, but I'm still looking for the perfect one to actually install on my system since the live-cd is too limited for my liking.

Thanks,

Have an Awesome Day!

Mickeyj4j
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Again.....

.....pendrive linux is already out there. y cant that be used.

DSL is actualy not that good a distro i have found it quite limiting as a linux sys. the only good thing is it is very small. the makers clame that it is better than vista. rubbish.

good on the team for crreating a linux distro for PASuite whetever it is.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

katasuka
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I would love to have

I would love to have portable apps for linux.

as for a portable firefox for linux, that should be fairly easy.....

create a launcher that does similar to the windows version and use the firefox from the getfirefox.com site for linux.

when i just checked, it downloads a tar.gz file that has a directory that contains firefox. the only issue is it likes to use the current users profile thats in /home/user

fix that and it may just work as is.

btw: dont go flaming me if im wrong or am oversimplifying things.

The programs id like to see portable for linux are:
firefox
pidgin
gimp

thats about it

José Pedro Arvela
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PAM

The PortableApps.com Menu could be done in Kylix, the same as Delphi, but for Linux. And I think that a portable Wine would be the best and the only thing necessary.
 
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Zebaztian
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Portable Apps for Linux - when?

Portable Firefox?
Just portable bookmarks to switch between Ubuntu and Windows would be just great.

alanbcohen
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One option for you to try (I

One option for you to try (I use it):

Google Bookmark sync for Firefox - let's you sync your bookmarks from local machines to Google's servers. I use it between Firefox installations on several PCLinuxOS boxes, two WinXP boxes and a pair of Portable Firefox copies (one on a USB stick and the second on a removable HD). I have heard there is a similar sync service from FoxMarks but I have no experience with that one.

A second option:
One of the many ways to store bookmarks on a web page, including Google and Yahoo. You might want to put your bookmarks on a personal webpage, either on the net or on your usb key and simply bookmark it in each copy of your browser.

I agree it would be nice if there was a simple way to define the name and location of a Firefox profile without needing commandline arguments. But until the developers of the original products are a smart as we are (GRIN), we have to use work-arounds.

gibbylinks
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Bookmarks Between Windows & Linux

Why not do what I do ?
Have a FAT32 partition for common stuff between windows and linux. Put your Firefox and Thunderbird profiles on it, and then just point your Linux & Windows programs to those profiles.

Doesn't matter what OS you boot into you always have the same set up for Firefox, with your bookmarks. Better still you have access to all your E-Mails on both OS

Hope that helps

moon_far_side
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Portable Linux Application

This is great effort for developing opensource portable applications for windows.

Now, Say, you have thunderbird portable with your mobile profile containing your addressbok and mails. If you need to open them in a linux platform you may need to copy or change default location of profile in linux. Thats troublesome for novice.

So, now the concept is that our favourite applications should run on linux as well as windows.

I would like to suggest developing portable wine (windows emulator for linux), so that people can run all their windows applications in linux PCs even if they do not have admin password. It can be a workaround for Kiosk use.

I am not a programmer but it should not be difficult for experienced people here. Give your comments..

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José Pedro Arvela
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Are you talking about this?

You're talking about this?

That link I provided is to an old idea that I had. The first idea of porting Wine to Windows was idiot. The other ideas below were better, and similar to yours.

Blue is everything.

gudmund
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Possibly helpful input for dual use of profiles (Lin and Win)

I'm currently looking around for how to make as much of at least the portable Mozilla apps usable from both Windows and Linux. I found this via the Mozilla Calendaring newsgroup:
http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Ssitter/UnifiedLightning

I guess it might be useful, since Mozilla apps share at least some features and concepts.

What I'm aiming to do next, is to have a look at what Thunderbird looks like in Knoppix, then use an axe and a rock and try to hammer it onto my portable HD, perhaps try some tweaking like the above, and see if it works (perhaps starting by trying to run it on portable HD from Knoppix, then from an installed OpenSUSE 10.2 or .3).

Gudmund

gudmund
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No TB on Knoppix :(

Just updating: haven't found a Knoppix with Thunderbird on it.

Gudmund

Chronon
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Icedove

My version of Knoppix (5.1) has it. Only they call them Icedove and Iceweasel, respectively, instead of Thunderbird and Firefox.

Gumburcules
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Really interested in Linux portable apps

I would really like to see some portable apps that work with Linux. It would be great to be able to use some of these apps on my Nokia N800 internet tablet.

g7kse
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naive but.....

although it's under wine I bring you this post from Ubuntu 7.10 and portable apps

If it was a bit more polished then they'd look the same but at the moment the apps seem to work just fine as they are. Work for the cat?

SmithTech
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Crossover

I can't say with any certainty but if there are any Linux guru's here they might want to take a look at Crossover Linux.
I just got a new Mac for Christmas and have been toying with Crossover Mac. The Mac version appears to be a single "executable" which does run from a portable drive, although the settings are stored in the user directory.
I'm not familiar with the Mac at all so I haven't attempted to make a launcher to copy the settings as of yet.
Maybe the Linux version is similar.
Or possibly Wine itself could be made portable.
Just throwing the idea out there. Really have no idea if its possible or the difficulty level.

"Because they stand on a wall and say, 'Nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'" (A Few Good Men)
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.(Albert Einstein)

gudmund
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Tested running Portable Thunderbird in CrossOver

I've tried running Portable TB in CrossOver and Wine on a few occasions.

It looks a wee bit odd, but it seems to work, except that I had it crash once or twice, which left interesting residue: folders containing åäö etc. had (empty, AFAIR) duplicates, obviously leftovers from clunky internal character handling (non-unicode).

It seems to work "mostly", but I'd hesitate to use it without previous proper backing up.

Gudmund

markphillips401
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WOW

I cant wait to run portable apps for windows AND linux on the same USB stick.
-MDP

relrobber
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Umm...

I popped my portapps drive in my Ubuntu box one day to pull some pics off of it, and the Portable Apps launcher started right up. I even opened some of the applications to see if they worked.

Mickeyj4j
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AHHHH.........

but did they. what was your success with running the windows PA version in ubuntu ??????

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

rspiteri
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My opinion

With all the respect to everyone who is working on the Portable Apps for Linux project, i totally disagree with that. It's against all standard mentality to make portable binaries for Linux.

I can understand the Portable Apps for Windows in order to promote more use of Open Source software on this horrible OS. Being a linux user for quite a long time now, I have another definition of portable.

You can just copy the contents of your home directory on a pen drive and then on another PC you plug in the pendrive, switch to the directory where your home settings are and use a simple script inside that directory as follows. In the examples i am referring to Firefox and Pidgin. First remember to pmount your pendrive with the -e switch, in order to be able to execute the scripts from the pen drive.

For Firefox:

#!/bin/bash

export HOME=$PWD
exec `which firefox`

For Pidgin:

#!/bin/bash

exec `which pidgin` -c $PWD/.purple

Obviously these are quite barebone scripts which can be refined easily.

However my idea of portable on linux is to carry just the configuration settings and not the complete binary. It's the owner of the PC that has to install or give you permission to install and use software on his PC. And as regards Window$, carrying binaries is one potential way to carry viruses as well.

Don't get me wrong, I like this portable apps thing for windows (even though the same way of thinking applies) but would never dream of seeing something similar done in Linux! At least on windows you are making people more aware of OSS. Sorry John but that's my opinion!

LOGAN-Portable
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I think you forget one

I think you forget one thing: take your app AND settings with you.

Problem is with Linux... Different 'distros' and different 'windows managers' might need different versions on a single app!?

hmm...

I looked a bit into autolaunch for windows, mac and linux... But thats from a CD point of view... I'm interested in a first step... to have to find a good way for autostarting an app based on a single start file... maybe perl could help. (I read about Ubuntu using umenu for a windows menu, that could also run under other OS'es. I just wonder how they get Perl portable for Linux, Windows and Mac. If it depends on a preinstalled enviroment it would not be as attractive :/

mike.jacobson
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portable apps and linux

...have I missed the point here? i have been using portable apps for years and they work on several different types (flavours) of linux. They run fine under wine. Debian, Ubuntu, Suse. That does of course presume you have wine installed. To save face on all of the Windows Managers and if running under wine won't do, could you have a portable wine to run your windows portable apps?

solanus
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WINE is not exactly

the optimal way to run an app in Linux. If you compare the performance of say, Firefox running under WINE to a installed version on Linux, the WINE version is much slower. Also, there are some apps that really don't work too well at all under WINE.

Portable Apps on Windows have 2 advantages over traditionally installed apps:
1. They can be carried in an external drive
2. They can be installed on a system into a single folder, which I like better because you can back up the app easily in its installed state.

#2 gets a whole new level of importance on Linux, considering how complicated it is to install apps on many Linux distros.
I'd love to see apps that are totally self-contained in one folder, that can work on any distro without requiring installation of a slew of prerequisite packages.

I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.

gudmund
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You're missing the point completely

about why most (all, hitherto) people I've met, me included, would want apps portable. And I would definitely not say it's against any kind of standard mentality.

When/if you bring your portables along, you can simply forget about all and any questions and problems about whether the exact software you need or want will exist - and work, the way you need it to - where you go.

You will have your flavours of everything, your bookmarks, settings, files, extensions, your everything with you - and all compatible, tried and true.

No hassle. And you will not have to be a guru of any kind to have it work for you. Don't forget no chain is stronger than its weakest link. Been there, done that - and positively hate it.

If people with a Linux computer would want you to use their computer at all, they'd probably just set up a guest account for you.

It's done in a jiffy and has (can and should have, at least) all the safeguards you want against silly/dangerous guest behaviour. It's what I do.

I believe that not having apps portable in Linux would rather be seen as a point of FOSS inferiority.

Sorry, I've seen too much of "What? This, that and whatnot doesn't work (out of the box/without arcane scripting/without...) in Linux? - Scrap that, I'm back to an OS where things just work!". The weakest link made the chain break.

Gudmund

Douglas_K
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Apps for Linux

I think it's a great idea. One USB Key with my apps / settings / preferences would be most excellent!

For me I'd want to see:
Firefox
ThunderBird
Pidgin
VLC for Linux

jps
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I also really want to see

I also really want to see portable apps for linux!

About security... Many guys want to drop this idea just because of "update reasons". On linux them use package manager who keep care about updates and people are scared that the portable apps won`t get updates.

Like we have on windows for any portable app a standard to add update informations in App\AppInfo\appinfo.ini be can also add this easy for linux. It should be trivial for any portable app updater to get this apps then also updated.

Just don`t be stupid and drop this hole idea because of "security reasons" like the guys done here http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/4737/

m-p-3
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Doesn't Linux restrict the

Doesn't Linux restrict the execution of binary files that are not installed by a super-user for security reason ?

Wences
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No it doesn't.

What it does do is:
it doesn't allow anyone except root (the super-user) and specially authorized users (sudo-ers and root group) do certain things, even if they do it through programs.

So if your program doesn't try to do any of those "forbidden" things, you'll be OK running it with any user.

If your program does do any of that, then you'll need, at least, to have someone who's got root or a sudo-er to install it for you, or, in the worst case, to run it as root (by having someone make you a sudo-er or otherwise give you root privileges).

Portable Apps should be in the first case (i.e.: not do root stuff) just in the same way that in Windows they don't require Administrator privileges.

jps
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great ideas

Portable apps for linux would be kinda cool. You could create an uber usb harddrive. Best for each situation.

(1) boot up a linux distro directly from usb drive if you are allowed to do that on this computer and then start using your portable linux apps.

(2) Use any operating system such as windows as host, then start a emulator or virtualizer, start linux in virtual mode and then start using your portable linux apps. (1+2 together are already working with qemu puppy, you can either start it in real or in virtualized mode, kinda great imho)

(3) If the host operating system is linux you could directly start using your portable linux apps.

(4) Universal apps which can run natively either from windows or form linux at once.

(5) If you have admin rights on windows you could use a portable andlinux, as soon you started andlinux you have a linux layer running with native speed on windows and start then using your linux-only portable apps.

Ultra flexibility!

The only cool feature missing would be encryption, but I think it should be also possible to add.

peter_g
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Portable AndLinux ?

Is there a portable AndLinux (www.andlinux.org) ?

By browsing the websites of OpenLina and AndLinux, andlinux looks much more useful (much more possible applications to run).

Is there a portable AndLinux ? Does that anyone know ?

jps
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maybe register in there forums and friendly ask for it

There is no portable version yet. And I am also not sure if this is possible. I guess at least you would need admin rights, I mean you are about to start a new kernel (linux) from inside your operating system (windows).

However, even if it would need admin rights I would still apprecicate it.

Maybe register in there forums and friendly ask for it...

Has been also requested here already. See
https://portableapps.com/node/5653

danielsen2009
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Just have both portable

I am using a 250gig external to run Ubuntu 8.04, I set aside 10 gigs for my Ubuntu ext3 partition, 1 gig for the swap and the rest is ntfs for transferring between windows and Ubuntu. I use portable applications from here and I use a lot of the same application in windows and on Linux. I didn't want to use wine to run my applications since I have more stable version designed for Ubuntu. So i was wondering if the application roots (where they store their settings and data) could be changed to the same one? So if I would boot into windows and use my portable apps they could pull the settings from the Ubuntu partition and when I boot into Ubuntu the settings will be the same. So I don't have to manage both at once, just set one and the data is saved in the same directory and all apps have the same settings under Ubuntu and windows. Or is their a way to just automatically sync the settings and data? HereI also posted to see if anyone could help. It would be nice if this could be done. So I would not only have a portable operating system but also portable apps for when I have to use windows!

gudmund
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The file system

issue will be one of your problems. Windows, AFAIK regardless of version, doesn't read any other file systems than their own + a few CD and DVD formats.

Other than that, shouldn't you be able to just point at least some of the apps, like Thunderbird and Firefox where-ever you want for the crucial files?

I believe how to do this is mentioned somewhere in this forum, either in this thread or another one.

Gudmund

Zach Thibeau
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He's talking about...

He's talking about producing the linux version of the app to be made portable as there are linux builds of Firefox and Thunderbird available

your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau

gudmund
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Hasn't he got that part working

and only wants to find a way of using the same data and settings for both the Windows and the Ubuntu installations?

Or do you mean he wants one set of executables and all, set up to work in both environments? That would probably be a tall order...

"So i was wondering if the application roots (where they store their settings and data) could be changed to the same one?"

FWIW, I've used the same mail directories for Netscape (and perhaps the early Mozilla, can't quite remember) in a dual boot environment.

Those same mail directories had to be in a FAT32 partition back then, since Windows couldn't read ReiserFS or Ext and Linux couldn't write reliably to NTFS.

AFAIR, this worked fine. I never tried using the same settings in both. I wonder if it would have worked, what with different ways of writing paths (D:\directory\subdirectory or /directory/subdirectory etc.) and other differences.

What I did not manage to get working was to have Kmail and Netscape share the same mbox files without mutual index amnesia (forgetting which messages were read/unread etc. between apps).

"So if I would boot into windows and use my portable apps they could pull the settings from the Ubuntu partition and when I boot into Ubuntu the settings will be the same."

To do this, you'd have to dig into what can be used in both environments at all, and make sure that the settings can be reached at all in Ubuntu from Windows and in Windows from Ubuntu (read and write etc.).

Gudmund

jm8094
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Linux Distro

I am able to use portable apps on a machine with Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (Hardy), but not one with SUSE Linux 10.1. Looking forward to the portable app specifically for Linux.

jack

zero2004
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portable firefox for linux

hello I wondered; Because there is no portable firefox for Linux that has all the benefits of which have decried it in windows if you have installed Firefox on Windows with procon that does not affect your portable namely its independence because he ioSwiftFox tried in Linux that would have assumed that independence when their extension but not so,

if laguien has plans for a zero portable firefox linux take into account that point
español

»
inglés

Traduzca

hola me he preguntado;Porque no hay un portable del firefox para linux que tenga todos los beneficios del que tiene en windows es decri si tu tienes instalado el firefox en windows con el procon eso no afecta a tu portable es decir su independencia ya que he probado el ioSwiftFox en linux que supone que tendria independencia en cuando a sus extenciones pero no fue asi,

si laguien tiene planes para cerar un portable del firefox para linux tengan en cuenta ese punto

Parliament
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Linux-Apps-Linux

I´m ready for it. I´ve been thinking the same thing. There´s got to be an easy way to translate all the ¨open source¨ Portable Apps to Linux. It´s like, an oxymoron. Or a, moronoxy.
With Vista biting the dust, and more importantly, Ubuntu throwing the dust on ¨Macrosoft¨, Linux has got to flex it´s long dormant muscles.
And ¨Bigger is Better¨, is just plain ridiculous in I.T.
Also, Portable applications should be universal and work irregardless of the OS, within reason of course.

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