Because I am that lame teacher who uses the same gags over and over in class, at least once a week my students can count on me to pull my smartphone out of my pocket and look something up just to make the point that it is now possible to carry the entire Internet around in our pockets. Sure, I usually mention something about mobile technologies as interfaces of hybrid spaces (@souzaesilva) and so on, but the point of the gag is clear: the future is awesome because things are easier to carry and easier to integrate—they’re portable.
A portable application is an application that lives entirely on a USB drive, external hard drive, or other portable device; you can access and run this application entirely off the media without installing anything or leaving a trace of data on the computer hosting your device.
Uses and types of portable applications vary greatly, from standalone applications to office suites to operating systems. A common portable app is a portable web browser—let’s say you are a devoted user of that popular Firefox extension for managing research sources (Zotero) but the computer in your office only has Internet Explorer installed and you can’t install anything else on that machine. Well, with a handy USB drive and Portable Firefox, you can carry around your Zotero library and use it wherever you want, syncing with the server as necessary.
Or, let’s say you’ve finally had a breakthrough on your thesis/dissertation/article/book project but the Mac lab has only an antiquated version of a word processing program and certainly not one you want to entrust with your most precious thoughts. If you’re carrying a USB drive with at least 500MB of free space, then Portable Open Office for OS X can come to your rescue!
Can we just take a moment to marvel at our ability to purchase a SanDisk Cruzer 16 GB Cruzer USB 2.0 Flash Drive for less than $30? Why, I remember when it was an amazing thing that disk space was ten cents per megabyte (this USB drive would have cost $1638.40). Anyway, I digress. Go buy a USB drive or twelve. They’re cheap.
The bottom line is this: you can use portable apps to maintain productivity simply by ensuring that you are carrying with you the apps that make you the most productive, even if the hardware on which you run those apps is unknown or otherwise out of your control.
In a Nutshell, Portable Apps...
- Are not installed on a permanent storage device (such as a computer’s internal hard drive
- Are installed on a removable storage device that can be used on multiple computers
- Do not write data (including custom settings and temporary files) to permanent storage devices
- Do write data (including custom settings and temporary files) to the removable device itself, and those settings are carried with the device
- Leave no trace on any computer after the program on the portable device has been used.
For a slightly larger nutshell, take a look at “What is a Portable App?” at PortableApps.com.
Platforms
Except when the portable app itself is an operating system, as is the case with Linux flash drive distros, portable apps still require an operating system to run; this is where the “computer into which you plug the USB drive” comes into play. In the scenarios above—the office with the Windows machine and the lab that contains all Macs—you would have to be carrying portable media with Windows applications (for the Windows machine) and portable media with Mac OS X applications (for the Macs). Given the wonder of the Internet and the availability of these applications for easy download, you don’t actually have to own a Windows machine to obtain some Windows apps (or a Mac to get some Mac OS X apps). For instance, there is nary a Mac in my house, but I do have a USB flash drive containing several Mac applications just in case I get stuck and the only computer around is an old Mac running Firefox 2.0 or some other similarly antiquated version of the web browser.
Applications
On the Windows side of things, I have been a long-time user of the products available at PortableApps.com. Currently, PortableApps.com offers nearly 100 apps in several categories (accessibility, development, education, games, graphics & pictures, Internet, music & video, office, security, and utilities). I’ll highlight a few that have been indispensable to me over the years:
- Google Chrome: web browser
- Mozilla Firefox: web browser
- Mozilla Thunderbird: e-mail client
- FileZilla: an FTP client
- PuTTY: a telnet and SSH client
- Audacity: sound editor
- GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation Program, an image editor
- OpenOffice: a complete Office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database)
- XAMPP: an integrated server package of Apache (web server), MySQL (relational database management system), PHP and Perl (programming languages)
- oh, and Canabalt: a ridiculously addictive game. Perhaps do not put that on your USB drive unless you can rationalize a few minutes of game-playing as a productivity trick.
For Mac users, you can get many of the same applications (as well as many Mac-only apps) thanks to the Free OpenSource Software Mac User Group. Here are some links to individual software packages:
Cautions
Obviously, the greatest caution to keep in mind when using portable apps is don’t leave your removeable media unattended for anyone to pocket. In addition to that basic tip, PortableApps.com has a great checklist for safe portable app-ing that includes information on virus scanning and backups.
I’ve used portable applications with great success over the years, and despite having the entire internet in my pocket (as well as word processing programs and other productivity tools) I find myself carrying well-stocked USB flash drives in my bag just in case.
How about you? Have you used portable apps? Do you have favorites to share? Let us know in the comments.
[Image by Flickr user *USB* / Creative Commons licensed]
