More power to USB Computing

N Madhavan
Hindustan Times

Last week, I wrote about the power of USB computing, under which you can simply load a cheap USB drive in anyone’s computer with free software and make it work like your own, with a desktop-like appearance. This secures your data privacy and helps you carry applications on the go, and in fact, substitutes for a laptop in many ways.

I had mentioned MojoPac (www.mojopac.com) as a software platform that can be freely downloaded to create a desktop virtualisation on your USB drive, but forgot to add that some of the key end-user open-source applications that go with it are available elsewhere. One site where you can get an entire suite that includes an OpenOffice software bundle, a PDF reader, an MP3 player and even an Internet messenger called Pidgin is PortableApps (www.portableapps.com).

Another great site (www.pendriveapps.com) offers a rich variety of portable software for free—even DVD burning applications and audio video editing tools here!