Portable, Open Source Applications
on a USB Flash Drive
Steve C. Yuen, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Southern Mississippi
E-mail: Steve.Yuen@usm.edu
And
Patrivan K. Yuen
Technical Services/Systems Librarian
William Carey University
E-mail: pyuen@wmcarey.edu
http://dragon.ep.usm.edu/~yuen/present/the/the07a.pdf

Content
• Overview of USB Flash Drives
• What is Portable Application?
• What is Open Source?
• Open Source in Higher Education
• Portable, Open Source Applications for
Teaching & Learning
• Resources

USB Flash Drives

USB Flash Drives
• AKA thumb drives, jump drives, pen drives,
keychain drives, USB keys, or USB sticks.
• Small, lightweight, removable data storage
device of up to 16 GB.
• Portable storage solutions for anyone on
the GO.
• A floppy-killer.
• Use USB 1.1 or 2.0 for data transfers.
• Often ship with a file-synchronization
software to make quick backups and a
encryption software for secure access.

Common Uses of USB Flash Drives
• Carry personal data around to access in a
variety of places.
• Used by network administrators for loading
configuration information and software used
for system maintenance, troubleshooting,
and recovery.
• Use as MP3 players.
• Use as a bootable flash drive with
emergency security applications for reviving
compromised computers.
• Carry portable applications that run on the
host computer without requiring installation.

Portable Application
• A portable application is a computer program
that you can carry around with you on a
portable device and use on any Windows
computer.
• Not require any form of formal installation to
be carried out on any computer before it can
be used.
• Settings are stored with, and can be carried
around with, the software.
• Leave a zero (or near-zero) \"footprint\" on any
PC it's run on after being used.
• All temporary files/registry settings should be
removed once the program has exited.

Portable Applications on USB Flash Drives
• Convenience, safe, easy to use, and self-contained
applications.
• Carry programs and personal preferences
anywhere, anytime, on almost any computer.
• Have your email and instant messaging accounts,
bookmarks, log-on passwords, and document
templates available on any computer.
• Carry enough applications to serve as a personal
office on the road.
• Access programs on any computer with no trace
behind.
• Run entirely from the USB drive without
installation.

What is Open-Source?
• Open source describes practices in production
and development that promote access to the
end product's source materials (source code).
• Code is available for all to see.
• Code may be modified by anyone.
• Modifications must be shared.
• Licensed under an approved Open Source
license.
• Well-known open-source projects include the
Linux OS, the Apache Web server, and the
Firefox browser.
• www.opensource.org

Why Open Source?
• Enable community development
• Thrives on distributed efforts
• Empowers communities of practice
• Enables innovation
• Requires participation
• Transparency provides security
• Lower barrier to entry
• Enable new business models
• The “right” thing to do

Open source is like...
• Changing & sharing curriculum
• Changing & sharing cooking
recipes
• Experimenting
• Improving
• Customizing

Open Source in Higher Education
• Open the door to a worldwide community of expert
software.
• Encourage the development of 21th century skills for
students.
• Allow students legal hacking, manipulate, customize, and
improve open source applications
• Allow professors to work collaboratively within a global
community toward the end of improving a product for the
good of all.
• Free schools of a dependency on expensive commercial
software.
• Keep students from pirating software and violating
proprietary licensing agreements.
• Allow students, professors, administrators, and parents to
exchange electronic documents.
• Minimize cost and allow funding to be diverted to
equipment and other programs.

Portable Internet Applications
• Portable Firefox
• Web browser
• Portable Thunderbird
• Email client
• Portable NVU
• Web authoring tool
• FileZilla
• FTP and secure FTP
• Portable Gaim
• Instant messaging client
• Download at [portableapps.com/apps]
or [johnhaller.com/jh/]

Portable Firefox
• Full-featured Web browser.
• Available for Windows and Linux/UNIX.
• Include popup-blocking, tabbed-browsing,
integrated search, improved privacy features,
automatic updating.
• Leave no personal information behind on the
machine you run it on, so you can take your
bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords
with you wherever you go.

Portable Firefox

Portable Thunderbird
• Easy to use email client.
• Available for Windows and Linux/UNIX.
• Include quick message search, customizable
views, support for IMAP/POP and RSS support.
• Leave no personal information behind on the
machine you run it on, so you can take your
email and address book with you wherever you
go.

Portable Thunderbird

Portable NVU
• Available for Windows and Linux/UNIX.
• A complete Web Authoring System that combines
file management and WYSIWYG Web page
editing.
• Integrated file management via FTP.
• Can jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and
HTML using tabs.
• Tabbed editing to make working on multiple
pages.
• Support for forms, tables, and templates.
• Download at [www.nvu.com]

Portable NVU

FileZilla
• A fast and reliable FTP client.
• Available for Windows and Linux/UNIX.
• Support resume on both downloads and
uploads, timeout detection, firewall support,
SOCKS4/5 and HTTP1.1 support, SSL and
SFTP.
• Drag and drop interface.

FileZilla

Portable Gaim
• A multi-protocol instant messaging client that
works with AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN
Messenger, and Yahoo.
• For Windows only.
• Log into multiple networks with the same
program.
• All your IM settings and buddy lists are self-
contained, so it leaves no personal information
behind on the machine you run it on.

Portable Gaim

PuTTY Portable
• A telnet and SSH client
for Windows, along
with an xterm terminal
emulator.
• Securely connect to
your systems while on
the go.
• For Windows only

Open Office
• Portable, multilingual office suite.
• A full-featured office suite that's compatible
with Microsoft Office, Word Perfect, Lotus
and other office applications.
• Include a word processor, spreadsheet,
presentation, drawing package & database.
• Download at [www.openoffice.org]

OpenOffice - Writer

OpenOffice - Calc

OpenOffice - Impress

OpenOffice - Draw

OpenOffice - Base

OpenOffice - Math

Portable AbiWord
• Portable word processing
program.
• For Windows only
• Read and write a number of
document types including
Microsoft Word, Word
Perfect, OpenOffice.org,
RTF, HTML, and Palm.
• Download at
[www.abisource.com]

Portable Sunbird
• A standalone calendaring and task
management application.
• Available for Windows and Linux/UNIX.
• Keep your calendar and tasks up-to-date.
• Leave no personal information behind on the
machine you run it on, so you can take your
schedule and to do lists with you wherever
you go.
• Download at [johnhaller.com/jh/]

Portable Sunbird

GIMP Portable
• GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an
image editing software for such tasks as photo
retouching, image composition and image
authoring.
• For Windows only.
• Can be used as a simple paint program, an
expert quality photo retouching program, an
online batch processing system, a mass
production image renderer, an image format
converter, etc.
• Download at [portableapps.com]

GIMP Portable

Audacity Portable
• An easy-to-use audio editor and recorder.
• For Windows only
• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings
or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• Download at [portableapps.com]

Audacity Portable

Sumatra PDF Portable
• A PDF viewer for
Windows.
• A minimalistic
design.
• It's small and starts
up very fast.
• Download at
[portableapps.com]

7-Zip Portable
• A file archiver
(compression) utility
for Windows.
• Compress 7z, ZIP,
GZIP, BZIP2, TAR,
RAR files and more
on the go.
• Download at
[portableapps.com]

ClamWin Portable
• A Standalone Virus
Scanner for Windows.
• High detection rates for
viruses and spyware.
• Update virus
databases.
• Download at
[portableapps.com]

KeePass Password Safe Portable
• A password manager for
Windows.
• Put all your passwords in
one database, which is
locked with one master
key or a key-disk.
• The databases are
encrypted using the
secure encryption
algorithms.
• Download at
[portableapps.com]

TrueCrypt
• Disk encryption software
for Windows and Linux.
• Encrypts an entire hard
disk partition or a storage
device such as USB flash
drive.
• Encryption is automatic,
real-time (on-the-fly) and
transparent.
• Download at
[www.truecrypt.org]

InfraRecorder
• CD/DVD burning solution for
Windows.
• Create custom data, audio and
mixed-mode projects and
record them to physical discs as
well as disc images.
• Supports recording to dual-
layer DVDs.
• Record disc images (ISO and
BIN/CUE)
• Download at
[infrarecorder.sourceforge.net]

TiddlyWiki
• A portable Wiki.
• Work well with Firefox portable.
• Download at [www.tiddlywiki.com]

Resources
• PortableApps.com
• PortableFreeware.com
• JohnHaller.com
• standalone.atspace.org
• tinyapps.org
• www.kikizas.net/en/usbapps.html
• www.osef.org
• www.schoolforge.net
• seul.org

THE END
Questions or Comments?
Thank You for Attending Our session!
This presentation is available on the Web at:
dragon.ep.usm.edu/~yuen/present/the/the07a.pdf