As I shared in "Tales of the Obsolete parts I and II," I have an ancient laptop that can barely run XP and has a whomping big 4 Gb hard drive. I immediately tripled it's capacity with the addition of an 8 Gb thumb drive. I could have gone for a larger portable HD, but I'm trying to keep it lean and lightweight.
Now, the real problem was that, when I'd loaded all the software I wanted/needed, I had no space left for temp files while I was editing/composing. Rut Roh! Surfing the web, looking for an answer, I found this: PortableApps.com.
I've always loved the concept of Open Source software and other freeware packages. In fact, I use Art Weaver to create some nifty digital pieces.
I've wanted to get into Open Office, but every time I've looked into it, and other Open Source software, there's this confusing array of files, "compiled" and not, and I just don't know where to go from there. Don't know the secret handshake. Don't have time to learn it. A true Windoze Slave though I rattle my chains on a regular basis. But I miss the days when I carried my apps on diskettes and used them on whatever computer I wanted to. (Yes, I'm OLD. Hush.)
Enter PortableApps.com. This site offers a truly impressive array of FREE open source apps, soup to nuts, with an easy to navigate menu, ready to go right out of the box! The real kicker? They not only FIT on a thumbdrive, they are PORTABLE! You carry your software with you and work off of any computer with a compatible Windoze OS. Nirvana! (and did I mention FREE?!?) They leave no footprint/cookies/files on the host computer. When you use the included Firefox Portable browser, all of your links, history and cookies are on the thumbdrive. They are kind enough to include donation buttons for both the Portable Apps website and the individual programmers/orgs. So after you download, show your appreciation, OK? I've downloaded the majority of these apps and when installed on my thumbdrive they take up less than 650 Mb. I'm burning a mirror to CDs to give to friends with pitiful slow dialup.
Below, I've cribbed their current apps listing. Click on "Applications" to go right to the webpage. Impressive, huh? With my aging eyeballs, the magnifier is pretty sweet.
Applications
Accessibility
- Firefox Accessibility Extension - Make Firefox more accessible
- On-Screen Keyboard Portable - Easily access an on-screen keyboard
- Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable - A full-featured screen magnifier
Development
- Notepad++ Portable - A full-featured text editor with syntax highlighting
- Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - The easy-to-use Nvu web editor
- XAMPP - Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, etc in one package
Games
- DOSBox Portable - classic DOS games to go
- Jooleem Portable - simple and addictive puzzle game with great music and visuals
- LBreakout2 Portable - breakout-style arcade game similar to Arkanoid
- Mines-Perfect Portable - a classic hunt-for-mines game with advanced features
- PokerTH Portable - classic Texas Hold Em style poker at its best
- Sudoku Portable - the wildly popular and addictive puzzle game
Graphics & Pictures
- GIMP Portable - Photo and Image Editor
Internet
- FileZilla Portable - the full-featured FTP client
- FireFTP Extension (for Firefox) - a lightweight extension
- Miranda IM Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
- Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure
- Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition - the handy email client
- Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - the easy-to-use webpage editor
- Pidgin Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
- PuTTY Portable - lightweight telnet and SSH client
- Sage Extension (for Firefox) - A full-featured RSS extension
- WinSCP Portable - SFTP, FTP and SCP client
Music & Video
- Audacity Portable - A simple audio editor and recorder
- BonkEnc Portable - extract, convert, and encode audio
- CoolPlayer+ Portable - Lightweight, fast, easy-to-use audio player
- MPlayer Portable - Full-featured movie player with support for most video formats
- VirtualDub Portable - video processing and capture utility
- VLC Media Player Portable - An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats
Office
- AbiWord Portable - a lightweight word processor compatible with Microsoft Word files
- GnuCash Portable - accounting, expenses and financial management
- Lightning Extension (for Thunderbird) - A lightweight extension for your calendar and tasks
- Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition - Calendar and task management with a familiar interface
- Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (Address Book) - Email client's built-in address book with import/export functions
- OpenOffice.org Portable - word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility
- PDFTK Builder Portable - split, collate, watermark and password protect PDF documents
- PNotes Portable - stick notes to go
- Sumatra PDF Portable - a lightweight PDF viewer
- Task Coach Portable - to do list and task manager
Operating Systems
- Mac-on-Stick - Run Mac OS Classic 7 portably
Utilities
- 7-Zip Portable - File archiver and compressor
- ClamWin Portable - Antivirus on the go
- Command Prompt Portable - Simple link to a customizable command prompt
- Eraser Portable - securely delete files and data
- InfraRecorder Portable - full-featured CD and DVD burner
- KeePass Password Safe Portable - Secure, easy-to-use password manager
- PeaZip Portable - Easy to use file archiver and compressor
- PortableApps.com Backup - integrated backup utility bundled with the platform
- PortableApps.com Menu - integrated start menu bundled with the platform
- Toucan - backup, sync and encrypt for advanced users
- WinDirStat Portable - disk usage analyzer and cleanup tool
- winMd5Sum Portable - check md5 sums to verify files on the go
- WinMerge Portable - file comparison and merging