Application: Freemind
Category: Graphics and Pictures
Description: FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software.
Download Freemind Portable 0.8.1 Development Test 6 [7.5MB download / 7.5MB installed] (MD5: ef09325eabd608f99d001d572944f85a)
Some notes:
This is the latest "stable" or release version. It apparently has fixed the problem in 0.8.0 where you couldn't use the latest (1.6) Java.
For those who want the latest beta of Freemind, here is Freemind Portable 0.9.0 RC1 Development Test 3 (RC = release candidate) Date: 2009-01-04 MD5: 514c0b99ea113a39d9256a7206a50d46.
Freemind Portable gives the instance of Java in PortableApps\CommonFiles, if found, priority over the system Java. I figure if it is working with the one that is loaded on the USB drive, it might be risky to try it with whatever version is loaded on the host system. Of course the java files don't get to CommonFiles by magic. If you want to try it, set up Java according to John's instructions for OpenOfficePortable.
I've not done anything to check if the app is already running. The techniques I'm familiar with don't seem to be working. I guess I could check on whether the launcher is already running and let it go at that.
The Freemind.exe (in the Windows distribution of Freemind) is a launcher, only written in c++. I didn't see a way to tell it to put its settings in .\Data easily, so I basically replaced it with an NSIS launcher. I suppose it wouldn't take much to reprogram the freemind.exe launcher to use .\Data, but that may be a project for another time.
The .freemind directory is created in .\data. The author makes a point about the program by default writing out all open files to that directory once a minute. This is probably not a good thing for Flash drives, which are only good for a finite number of writes. He gives instructions for having open files written instead to the user temp directory (usually on the hard drive), to save all that disk activity on Flash drives. That would probably be a very good idea. I've included a default auto.properties file with that setting, but you'll need to change the setting if you are installing over a pre-existing version. If you are concerned about privacy or confidentiality, over premature aging of your USB Drive or speed, you may want to go to Tools | Properties | Environment and change the "Path To Automatic Saves" back to "freemind_home" (in ./Data) or something else on your removable drive instead of "default" (which is the user temp directory).
The launcher re-writes some of the paths in the configuration file, to allow for the app to be launched from a different drive. I don't use the program (yet) so I don't really know what they all are for. If someone finds a path that isn't re-written properly, or some other inconvenience when drive letters change, let me know.
The program seems to want to default to opening files from or saving files to the "My Documents" folder. I haven't experimented with trying to trick it into using a folder on the USB drive. Do we have a standard for that?
16 Feb 2008: changed icon on 0.8.1 to match freemind.exe
19 Feb 2008: tweaked default install dir and icon usage
04 Mar 2008: updated to beta 16
13 Jun 2008: updated to beta 18 (see freemind site for notes)
04 Jan 2009: updated beta to 0.9.0 RC 1
(They'd probably appreciate your reporting any problems with the 0.9.0 version on their web site, if no one else has reported them already.)
I'm just struggling to understand what has taken the place of user.properties or if I somehow missed it.
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