Open Source Portable Applications

One of the problems in evaluating open source is that all computer labs and most work environments do not allow you to install anything. So how do you try something new?

The answer is portable applications - programs that do not have to be installed to run. Because open source is open, people have been able to modify the programs to make them run without needing installation. This means you can keep them on your USB stick until needed. And since open source is platform agnostic there are even windows versions.

We ran into the usual IT dept roadblock a few terms ago when we wanted to teach LAMP. They finally put up a server but restricted access so severely that there was no point. The solution was to run a portable LAMP stack called server2go. (Hong Cui; Nickerson, Gordon. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science. September, 2007. )

Since then, the number of portable applications has exploded as they provided a real solution to the 'locked-down' windows-only computers in most organizations.

The wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software is not exhaustive but lists a large variety of software suitable for your USB stick. Most are packaged in PortableApps.com format which uses a PortableApps launcher (either embedded or standalone) and are for Windows. A list of mac portable apps is at: http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/
although macs have always had 'portable' apps because you can run many programs from CD or disk images.

Graphics

GIMP portable - graphics program for windows and osx
GIMPshop - photoshop like version.
There is also X-inkscape a vector graphics program at http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=657 and copies of Tuxpaint and Zpaint.

Word Processing

Portable Abiword is at http://abiword-portable.en.softonic.com/ and portable open office is at https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableoo/and even the desktop publishing scribus software is portable. See https://sourceforge.net/projects/portablescribus/

There are lots of other stuff i can't wait to try including bittorrent clients and Mojopac, a portable chopped down copy of windows that you create.

The growth in portable apps shows once again the amount of innovation that occurs when people have access to the source code!

October Update - we finally got around to building the USB key of open source apps and it is working well. What we need now is to figure out which are the fastest USB keys on the market and go buy a big one. The next step is to move the XAMPP stack off the computer and onto the USB, i read that it can be done and integrated into the portableapps menu - perfect for the January term. What i am wondering about now is producing a class set of pre-configured USB keys ready to go. This would save a lot of time and problems. There are hardware-based USB duplicators but they are expensive. Since many computers have 6 or more USB slots running off several buses a software duplicator like Ghost might be the answer. You can always back up and restore the sticks from the portableapps menu - need to test this out. The menu also allows the user to change the name on the stick to their own name. The idea here is to create a total environment with all the tools they need including firefox extensions and favorites and just clone the master image.

PS - the other kicker in this is we could get network games like doom and quake to run and have a fragfest in the lab without the windows IT guys having a fit...we did this a few years ago with a linux live games cd but i haven't been able to find a copy since...