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DATE: 15-September-2008
Filed Under: USB Devices, Linux

I have often wished that I could open a totally different desktop that would include all of my portable applications. The customizable desktop environment would allow you to access and open your portable applications, access the Internet, and share data between your USB device and your desktop computer.

The J.U.D.E project has been repurposed, but it originally hoped to bring this type of environment to your desktop. Although J.U.D.E resided on your USB drive you needed Administrator rights to run J.U.D.E on your desktop so J.U.D.E did not run totally from your USB device. In addition, J.U.D.E was never completely implemented and its promised capabilities were never totally developed.

So my quest continued until I learned of USB Linux. These miniature distributions of Linux allow you to run Linux from your portable device. They include their own desktops with a relatively full complement of applications. I express relative because desktop versions of Linux include many additional applications and typically make use of full featured versions of these applications where as some of the USB application versions are especially designed and trimmed down to conserve on distribution size.

It is neat to be able to boot into a totally new and unique world; a world within a world. USB Linux distributions offer data creation tools, the ability to save your creations to your device, and the capability of sharing your files between your device and your PC. In addition, you can access the Internet through your modem or a Network interface and communicate with other kindred souls.

There are many Linux distributions that are well suited for USB devices and sites that will walk you through the process of installing these distributions to your USB device, which I have mentioned in prior postings. There are although several sites that list small Linux distributions that could possibly be installed on a USB drive.

• The Live CD List
• Distro Watch
• Small and Live Unix distributions
• Linux Link
  

Although I routinely use Damn Small (DSL) and Puppy Linux and run them on small capacity USB drives imagine installing multiple versions of these portable Linux distributions on SD cards. One gigabyte cards have come down in price considerable. Purchase several cards, a card reader, and a card wallet and you could switch between these virtual portable worlds as you saw fit.

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