Ever wanted to take your PC with you in your shirt pocket? Well, there’s a really nice way of doing this. Put your OS on a USB Stick and just plug it into any ‘ol PC and away you go.
Ingredients:
- Mac OS X… nope, sorry folks maybe in the next millenium
- Windows… nope, who’d want that?
- Ubuntu Linux 7.10 ISO (get from www.ubuntu.com)
- A 1Gb+ USB Stick although I’d recommend 2Gb at least and make sure it’s a fast one. Look on www.pricespy.co.nz
- A PC with Ubuntu (or other Debian-Linux installed)
The detailed instructions for the install can be read here: www.pendrivelinux.com
Follow the instructions by the letter and you’ll be OK. If you have a USB stick with more than 1Gb then I’d contemplate making the first partition 850MB or more (write +850M instead of +750M). I’ve tried this a couple of times and it works like a charm. The boot does take a while. I think it’s because the mounting of the file system takes a while to complete (the faster the stick the faster the boot!). Once started it is snappy enough to use.
Don’t forget though that even a USB drive needs some backups now and again! Sticks with up to 4GB fit nicely on a DVD-R.
Ubuntu 7.10 is by far the best Desktop Linux I’ve seen. It is starting to look good enough for proper use. Still nowhere near my Macs but enough for the surfer-email-crowd and excellent for all the uNiX geeks out there. It is also an option in companies where getting a Mac just isn’t an option. Ubuntu is the perfect mole. If you do that just make sure you keep the updates coming and install some kind of virus protection to protect your fellow Windows users.