I never thought my usb-key would come in handy, when I first bought it about a month ago. There had just been these incidents know and then where I really needed a way to move data around between computers without mailing stuff to myself.

How wrong I was…

You see, searching the internets one of those afternoons where I probably should have spent my time on something else, I stumbled upon www.PuppyLinux.org. This linux distribution is made with smallness and transportability in mind. The feature that really caught my eyes though was the ability to boot the entire system from my newly bought USB-key. That thingie might just as well come in handy I thought to myself and decided to give it at try. This is basically my impression.

Puppy linux is designed so it loads the whole system from the key over to the memory of the computer when you boot it. This makes the system fast as Mini with a rolls royce engine. Response time is stunning, and every little program starts as soon as I pretty much just think of starting it. It takes some ram to run it like that, for sure. The computer I tested it on had 512mb, and about 300mb were free when I ran the system with normal load.

This comes with a price of course, because the initial setup is dead-ugly, but I do honestly believe that it is due to the bad taste of the developer (who btw deserves praise, of course… even with a bad taste). I think it’s possible to customize it a little to make it look better, especially if I spend some time on it. So with that out of the way the price is probably simplistic applications, which it’s a lot easier to live with than ugly interfaces for me.

There is the basic range of applications for a standart system, like browser (SeaMonkey or something, I think. Stupid name, works fine), email, video and word-application (Abiword). Personally I would like to get konqueror installed. I like konqueror very much. I think it would be too much of a hassle though, with kde and everything…

Back to what I really want to talk about: The implications of USB-booting linux! The things here is that when you’re finished with some work on the computer, Puppy Linux offers to save everything you’ve changed to the cd. This means you can just plug the USB in the next computer and carry on from wshere you left. Cool eh?

So know I can just take my USB-key with me and whenever there was a computer with windows in sight, I can save the day, boot linux on it, and acces all my data and normal applications without a problem. Damn nice!

Here’s how you get it working in 3 easy steps:

1 Burn a cd with puppy linux
2 Boot puppy linux from it
3 Install puppy linux to the USB-key via a wizard on the system

And tzaping! - Transportable desktop.