I was struck by an idea as I read a thread today about "Adobe InDesign" (not sure why it didn't occur to me earlier), and I thought I'd turn it into a thread. The thought here is this:
We all have commercial apps on our systems of one sort or another that we would LOVE to be able to use portably - most often on our workplace PCs. And yet most commercial apps - whether large or small - "install" onto our systems, and so are pretty much "stuck" there. Now over the years - being the inquisitive type that I am - I have experimented and found certain commercial apps that ARE (Lo and behold!) portable; however, they obviously do not advertise themselves as such. Moreover, there weren't many of such apps, and since discovering "portable apps" (the concept, not so much this specific site), I've largely abandoned any such further experiments.
Perhaps, tho', it is time to revisit the concept in this here thread. After all, this would allow an entire community (not just little ol' me) to contribute to such efforts, coming up with launchers and what all else to enable such great functionality in our installed apps. I'm aware that this may violate the license of some apps (those that license you only to have a SINGLE copy, 4x), however, there are many other apps whose licenses allow 2 or 3 copies, and/or are vague enuff to allow for same. I guess my guideline here would be to just state that it is up to any posters who contribute to check into those license issues before posting. Also, any links posted would be limited to those links leading to either
An online explanation of HOW to make a given commercial app portable, or else
(b) A launcher for said app that you've come up with (or else someone else's that you discovered).
In no case would I encourage linking to warez (that is, downloadable versions of commercial apps - portable or otherwise), since that is illegal. The thought here is to be able to take commercial apps that *you* own and be able to use them portably.
That said, let's see what we all can come up with!
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