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 Weave r 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