Geeky Fun: UbuntUSB
Ubuntu is coming to a USB drive near you. Sounds neat, yes? I don’t know…it will only work on a USB drive with a capacity of 10GB or better. How many people are going to have a use for this?
Normally, I try not to be very critical of pet projects within the community, but this project really sounds kind of lame. Here’s some quotes from Guillaume Darbonne, a spokesman for the project. See if you agree with me:
Pertec Inc. last week introduced UbuntUSB, touted as an easy way to install Ubuntu Linux on a portable USB hard drive, letting any PC boot Ubuntu Linux without requiring either BIOS or system reconfiguration.
Hmmm…I think it’s likely that most systems will require a BIOS tweak to boot from an external USB drive. Certainly not all and maybe not many of the newer ones, but given that one of the Linux’s strengths is rejuventating older systems - I’m going to go out on a limb and say a LOT of systems are going to require a BIOS tweak.
There is a bootable CD that users can boot from and then launch the OS, though. Now we’re getting clunky.
It’s also a great product to try out a real Ubuntu Linux without changing anything on their current operating system…
This is the part of the whole project that I don’t get. We already have a system to test out Ubuntu. It’s called the Live CD and can be freely downloaded from the Ubuntu site.
I guess what I can’t wrap my head around is who this thing is supposed to be aimed at.
If a computer can boot from USB, then it’s likely modern enough that it has a CD drive. Therefore, the live CD seems like a much better way to evaluate Ubuntu.
If a computer doesn’t have a CD, then the bootable CD isn’t going to be any good so there’s no way to launch the OS.
I suppose this would be useful for those rare systems that have bootable USB BIOSes but no CD drive.
Are there a lot of those out there?
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7 opinions for Geeky Fun: UbuntUSB
Shawn S
Jan 26, 2006 at 4:02 pm
It’s probably aimed at people running light terminals (no HDD, no CD\DVD drive). That’s the only thing I could think of.
Jon
Jan 26, 2006 at 4:07 pm
I guess so, eh? Purposely built thin clients.
Seems weird they would be touting it as a good way to ‘try out’ a distro if that’s who they’re aiming at.
Shrug…
weston
Feb 1, 2006 at 8:08 am
I have a tablet pc. No CD drive, but bootable USB. And an internal wireless card that’s supposedly compatible with linux, so I’d love to have something like this. I could configure the whole OS to play nicely, then use the config file (or whatever) to do a hard drive install.
Jon
Feb 1, 2006 at 8:12 am
Aha! There *is* a good use for it. Neat - if you do it, let us know how it goes :)
Geoff
Feb 4, 2006 at 12:06 am
I can’t imagine an OS that’s 10 GB–let alone a Linux distro. I think it’s a typo.
snowozne
Nov 8, 2006 at 3:11 pm
i have yet to find a linux distro that has the software on it that i use the most. every single linux install i have to install 5-10 packages that none of them include.
live cd’s are great for testing limited when it comes to what i want to use them for.
if ubuntusb install actually lets you install extra packages after it’s on the ext. usb hd it would be perfect for me.
azmodean
Jan 6, 2007 at 8:31 am
I’ve always found live cd boots to run quite slow. Another problem live cds have as a “tryout” is you cannot save your settings and customisations between sessions. With booting from a usb drive, it addresses both of these issues, the response time is generally much faster and your settings can be saved to the usb drive and therefore be persistent between sessions. The 10GB sise sounds a bit odd, te last time I installed ubuntu it suggested that I allow it a 2GB partition, perhaps they’re giving the size in binary? :)
That having been said, if this sounds intriguing, you can try out DSL or puppy linux, which each only require 50MB on a usb drive for a resonably complete distribution with GUI. Also, you can’t imagine how responsive an OS/GUI can be until you have tried one that fits completely on a ramdrive…
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