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PortableApps Suite: Portable computing with style
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CommentsThe idea behind the PortableApps Suite is to provide an entire portable environment as a single installable package comprising everything you need: applications and additional utilities that make portable computing more efficient. In addition to the programs mentioned above, the suite contains more than a dozen desktop applications.
You don't have to be a savvy computer user to install the PortableApps Suite: just download the version you want (you can choose between the Standard and Lite versions), double-click on the downloaded file, point to your USB stick, and the installer does the rest. The result is a neat environment with a wide range of preinstalled portable applications from the OpenOffice.org Portable office suite to the ClamWin Portable anti-virus tool. The Standard version takes a 512MB USB stick, while the Lite version, where OpenOffice.org Portable is replaced with AbiWord, fits on a 256MB USB drive.
If this much code is too big to fit your USB stick -- or if you prefer to handpick the applications -- you can opt for the bare-bones version of the PortableApps Suite, which doesn't include any applications, and download individual applications from the PortableApps Web site and install them one by one. Most applications at the site are available in the new Portable Application Format, which makes them simple to add to the PortableApps Suite. Simply press on the Options button in the PortableApps Suite panel, select Install a New App, and point to the PAF package. You can also install a portable application in the PAF format even if you don't use the PortableApps Suite. Moreover, the PortableApps Suite recognizes non-PAF applications, too. Copy your portable applications to the PortableApps folder, press on the Options button in the PortableApps Suite panel, select Refresh App Icons, and the application's executable appears in the list of installed applications.
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The PortableApps Suite runs on Windows, or on Linux via WINE, which is a major boon for Linux users. This does, of course, require that WINE be installed on any Linux host machine. While the chances of stumbling upon a Linux-based machine at a hotel or an Internet café are still slim, it's nice to know that you can use your applications and access your documents on Linux, too. Just don't count on all the features and applications working 100%. The PortableApps panel, backup utility, AbiWord, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, and several other applications work fine under WINE, but ClamWin, the GIMP, and Sunbird will likely fail.
The portable versions of Firefox and OpenOffice.org that are included in the PortableApps Suite also sport an interesting enhancement. You can now run them off a CD very much like you would do with a live CD Linux distribution. You do need to tweak Firefox and OpenOffice.org before you burn them to a CD, but this is not a difficult thing to do. Although the live versions of Firefox and OpenOffice.org may not be as useful as their portable siblings, they are appropriate for users who want to try Firefox and OpenOffice.org without installing anything on their machines -- exactly as with live CD Linux distributions -- but I don't see this feature as appealing to most users.
Some users might find the PortableApps Suite limiting: it isn't tweakable enough to satisfy the needs of power users. However, its sheer simplicity and polished interface will appeal to people who want to be able to use a portable computing environment with minimum efforts and maximum style.
Dmitri Popov is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Russian, British, German, and Danish computer magazines.
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<a href="http://portableapps.com/apps/development/xampp" title="portableapps.com">http://portableapps.com/apps/development/xampp</a portableapps.com>
Its a combo of Apache, mySQL, PHP and Perl.
See also the <a href="http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/05/1511203&tid=79" title="newsforge.com">Newsforge article</a newsforge.com> on using the Open Source ASuite and Unison with PortableApps.
<a href="http://www.framakey.org/En/Index" title="framakey.org">Framakey</a framakey.org>
While it's certainly cool to have PortableApps if you are a Windows user, it is surely much cooler (in fact freezing cold..., nah -- let me rephrase that: it's hot as hell) to have <a href="http://klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de"> "PortableKliks" </a atekon.de> if you are a Linux user.
On Linux I use <a href="http://klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">klik bundles</a atekon.de> every day. klik is a great little project that implements an brilliant idea: "1 application = 1 file = 1 click" . Hopefully this idea will make its breakthrough on a much wider scale and get adopted as a standard way to add new userspace applications on top of what the distros ship.
klik is awesome. One click to get the file (=application) and run it.
You can't even talk about "installing" it. Because what klik does has nothing to do any more with "installation" as we know it. Easy as eating cake...
klik encapsulates all binaries, direct dependencies and data files of an application into 1 compressed archive image.
In contrast to PortableApps for Windows (which right now does not offer more than a few dozen of applications, though that may change for the better quite soon), <a href="http://klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de"> "PortableKliks" </a atekon.de> offers thousands of bundles. (Though, please be aware: klik is currently still more in Alpha quality than in a completely polished and mature state; however; it works very well for many distros and many different software programs).
Oh, and it is truely portable as well: run a klik bundle from a USB thumbdrive, a CD-RW, or a memory card -- or even simply copy it to a different Linux system (with a different distro installed) to use it there.... No installation, Ma!
See also the <a href="http://klik.atekon.de/wiki/index.php/User's_FAQ" title="atekon.de">klik User's FAQ</a atekon.de>
Recommendation: don't miss to look at these PortableKlik apps:
- <a href="http://opera91.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Opera 9.10 </a atekon.de>
- <a href="http://openoffice.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Open Office 2.1 </a atekon.de>
- <a href="http://skype.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Skype </a atekon.de>
- <a href="http://picasa.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Picasa </a atekon.de>
The author of this article, Dimitri, surely must be completely unaware of klik so far. I'd be looking forward to see him research about klik, testdrive it and write about it in his columns on NewsForge. klik surely will one of the hottest topics on Linux in the coming years...
Re:Windows=PortableApps; Linux=PortableKliks
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 20, 2006 01:29 AMI've been loving PortableApps for all the Windows machines I have to use and fact that my home Windows boots can be rebuilt with little more than the base OS leaving all user apps portable across shared drives or the source USB when I'm out and about.
The question of portable apps for Linux has come to mind a few times; this may be the answer to that question.
Re:Windows=PortableApps; Linux=PortableKliks
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 20, 2006 02:01 AMRe:Windows=PortableApps; Linux=PortableKliks
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 20, 2006 02:52 AMRe:Windows=PortableApps; Linux=PortableKliks
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 20, 2006 03:28 AM "I cannot put the klik on my USB and carry it do a different machine and run directly off USB."
You're not well informed then. Have you ever tried it? Or are you talking of the back of your guts?
Of course you can do what you say you can't. Right now, I'm running Opera 9.10 from a CD-RW (which in essence is not different from running it from an USB device). And guess what? I downloaded and made my klik for Opera 9.10 on a SuSE-9.1, burned it on CD, and stuffed the CD into a drive that is hooked to a SUSE-10.1.
Your turn again...
There is more work involved than just using a Klik
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 23, 2007 02:43 PMAlso, Klik itself must be installed on the target host (in the user's directory), and the proper file associations set. (Some distros such as SUSE may have it by default.) This could be circumvented by making a portable version of Klik, with a menu similar to Pmount that starts up the Klik bundles (no need for file associations if you go through a launcher program).
Those portable apps for windows mentioned in the article above have had a special launcher made for them, that changes the paths according to their new location each time they're started, and that forces settings to be saved to a local directory inside the usb key.
One problem that I foresee with making portable linux apps is that many of them are probably hardcoded to write their settings to the home dir, each to their own dot-folder. So a recompile might be needed, while windows apps are maybe more flexible?
To conclude, portable apps can certainly be made, with some work, our of Klik apps or any linux app, but nobody has stepped up to do it up to now. Must we always lag behind windows in terms of innovation?
I use Portable Firefox at school, it's nice.
* <a href="http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable" title="portableapps.com">http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_por<nobr>t<wbr></nobr> able</a portableapps.com>
PortableApps thingie Windows only? Or Linux too?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 19, 2006 10:02 PMOn Linux I am a happy <a href="http://klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">klik</a atekon.de> user. klik is a great little project that implements an awesome idea: "1 application = 1 file = 1 click".
One click to get the file (=application) and run it. Easy as eating cake...
You can't even talk about "installing" it. Because what klik does has nothing to do any more with "installation" as we know it.
klik encapsulates all binaries, direct dependencies and data files of an application into 1 compressed archive image.
Oh, and it is truely portable as well: run a klik bundle from a USB thumbdrive, a CD-RW, or a memory card -- or even simply copy it to a different Linux system (with a different distro installed) to use it there.... No installation, Ma!
See also the <a href="http://klik.atekon.de/wiki/index.php/User's_FAQ" title="atekon.de">klik User's FAQ</a atekon.de>
Recommendation: don't miss to look at these <a href="http://klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">PortableLinuxKliks</a atekon.de>:
- <a href="http://opera91.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Opera 9.10 </a atekon.de>
- <a href="http://openoffice.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Open Office 2.1 </a atekon.de>
- <a href="http://skype.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Skype </a atekon.de>
- <a href="http://picasa.klik.atekon.de/" title="atekon.de">Picasa </a atekon.de>
klik dangerously close to being a bad idea.
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on February 13, 2007 10:27 AMImagine this: Some corporate CEO/President stands up at a news conference and declares that in order to enforce the software copyrights he owns he would like to see all the end users use dumb terminals and have all the real working parts of the programs they use either reside on his corporate servers or at the very least, downloaded in some temporary form on to the client's computers to be used while they run the app then erased.
oh wait, bill gates already said that
oh wait klik does this
oh no
i read some post from a "long time linux user" saying he liked it
OH NO.
blasphemy.
id like to hear linus comment on this.
look, even if klik doesn't have those sinister overtones, why push tech that would help other people who DO Have those intentions?
if you're gonna say it saves space or something, then why not at least offer dual packages which the user gets to choose between..the current klik type package, or one self extracting file with all the packages for the app that it needs in it that the user can keep locally and use whenever they want without an internet connection or without connecting to the klik server?
shadow at sunlink dot net.
I like!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 19, 2006 02:00 AMUnfortunately, one app on the website, namely "PStart" is not open source.<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:(
That sucks.<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:(
I would like to see a portable version of Apache, that would be nice.
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