I am new to portable applications, and I must say, I am somewhat hooked.
My question is why would we want to choose a portableapps.com version of a software over the native version from the developer, such as notepad++ or filezilla who both offer .zip portable downloads?
If the developer offers a portable version, is there a benefit to the portableapps.com version? Wouldn't the launcher slow things down a bit?
I do not use the portableapps menu at all.
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Well, let me welcome you then before someone else does.
The primary reason for the PortableApps.com version of the apps, admittedly, is uniformity. Our head honcho here is trying to get portable apps on flash drives as a convenience, so everything's got to line up to get the hardware vendors interested, it can't be sloppy. And it looks good.
The secondary reason is that while your hypothetical .zip program is probably 100% portable and local to the one directory, PortableApps.com apps use a uniform directory tree. You have the APP directory, which stores info on the app for the menu, the app itself, and dependencies; you have the DATA menu, which stores your settings, and you have the OTHER menu that has the help and source files, if it's open source (everything here is). The included backup application basically just backs up all the DATA folders, so the backup is small, and easy to be emailed (e.g. to yourself in case of emergency).
Additionally, this site has a very strict definition of "portable" that all the apps adhere to. There are some apps that while they work portably, they don't conform to this site's standards, and the PAF launcher will bring them up to that standard. By clicking the link, you can read the standards that all the apps here are held to, so you know what to expect.
I'm pretty sure most if not all of us here use a couple things that are not from PortableApps.com. The most common, I think, is CCleaner. Because it's freeware but not open source, they can't host it here, but there is a launcher that you "install" and then unzip the portable CCleaner ZIP into the right folder. Or you can just unzip it in its own folder under the PortableApps folder, and it will show up in the menu.
If you don't use the menu, the apps are still just as portable, if you use the launcher. That isn't very convenient in some cases, but if it works for you, it's fine, of course. I use portable apps at home, and while I have the menu (actually a fork of the menu), I don't use it. I put shortcuts to the apps on my desktop. This is handy because I experiment with the Windows 7 public beta and go back and forth between that and XP, and when something goes wrong, I reformat, and it's nice to keep my apps set up how I like. At work, I use the menu (with a custom skin) since that's more convenient for me.
The launchers don't slow the apps down, but they do do a couple tasks before the app can start, like setting up the portable environment, but this is more for apps that aren't inherently portable to start with. The more work needed to portablize an app, the more the launcher has to do, and of course the inverse is true. On a modern computer, you shouldn't notice a big difference.
Thanks for the welcome and the detailed information.
Whether it's good, obviously depends on whether the standard is good. I'll leave it for everyone to decide whether PAF directory structure is good.
Some don't, indeed, some are very far from it. Though some others are more portable than in this definition. So the advantage of PA.com here is that one has standards clearly written, w/out the need to ask, not the definition itself.
BTW I'd be careful with such backup. You have no warranty that settings format won't change and backups are meant for security. Differential backups that include programs are about as small and more secure.
Except for startup (which may be critical if app is opened often for short periods of time).
And except for low memory situations, where additional (often, though not always unnecessary) memory usage slows whole system down.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
Some of the the things we often fix when we take an officially-release 'portable' version in zip format include:
In addition, since we're packing in a portable installer and using a specific format, it provides some other advantages:
The PortableApps.com Format and our installer has been opened up to all publishers. Our goal is to have other publishers right their apps to the PortableApps.com spec so that you can get truly portable apps in a familiar format from everywhere.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John,
how can one get login credential support for this website. I have an old account I'll like to tweak and it seems I've been locked out of it.
I've tried sending a mail to developers_developers@... and for almost a week I've gotten no reply. Help!