Wanderings and Musings

I try to use a portable thumb drive with portable applications for all of my application needs wherever I go. This provides me with security with the fact that none of my data is left hanging around on any machine, security also with the fact that I use an SSH tunnel for my internet needs thus avoiding someone snooping my traffic on the network, and ease of use as all of my programs are accessible anywhere I am at as long as I have a windows computer to plug my drive into.

I’ve had a few requests from people to give them a copy of all the programs I use… however, this isn’t quite what I want to do as my personal data is often saved into the application folders of those programs. So I decided to create a post about the items I use and provide links.

Where did I get these applications? Mostly from http://portableapps.com but also from http://www.portablefreeware.com and a few other places.

So without further ado… here are the programs I use. It’s not ALL of them, but I will endeavor to update this document with more as I can, and update it with changes in my lineup. You’ll notice that at the bottom I have apps with no information or links. These will get updated as I have time or requests to do so.

Legend

	I have on my thumb drive
	Open Source Software
	For Windows
	For Ubuntu (Debian linux

Ratings are based on the quality of the application, plus if it’s open source, and whether it runs on Linux and Windows. I run Linux at home and Windows at work, so I want to be able to use the same quality program in both places if possible and not worry about data problems.

Communication

• Putty Portable - If you want to be able to get through a firewall, or just want to keep all of your communication secure from prying eyes…then you will need both a SSH client (Putty) and SSH server. Once you’ve got access to an external SSH server, use Putty and the world is your oyster. There’s no need for Putty on Linux as SSH is built right in.
• Firefox Portable - The same nutty goodness as your normal Firefox installation, but it’s completely portable and won’t leave any traces on the host system.
  • Addons
    • My favorite addons
      • Foxmarks - Syncronize your bookmarks to all your firefox installs
      • Download statusbar - places your downloads on the statusbar. Very unobtrusive.
      • Gmail Manager - Manage all your Gmail accounts and get notified of new mail.
      • Google Preview - On the google search screen, get a thumbnail preview of the site.
      • Noscript - Blocks all script unless you tell it to
      • Inline Google Definition - Right click on a word and get the definition
      • Forecastbar - Local weather forecasts always visible.
    • Other addons I use - Reload Every, All-in-one sidebar, FireUploader, Nuke Anything, Gmail Space, Colorful tabs, Firebug, FireFTP, GreaseMonkey, Save Image in Folder, Split Browser, StumbleUpon, text/plain links, Fast Video Download, Alexa Sparky, Fox Clocks, SEO for Firefox
• Pidgin Portable - Supports all the various IM protocols, so you can chat with people across them all but never have to switch clients. Some advanced functionality isn’t supported like Cams and photo sharing, etc. Supports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-gadu, Google Talk, GroupWise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo
  • Plugins
    • Bot Sentry, History, Psychic Mode

Multimedia (Music, Video, Images)

Video

• MPlayer Portable - Originally I preferred VLC over MPlayer but as they have both improved over time I’ve found myself preferring MPlayer now. They both play most any video you would want, but MPlayers interface is slightly more intuitive. It’s much better than Windows Media Player and always improving.
  • Alternative
    • VLC Portable - Although I have chosen MPlayer over VLC for now, they are both quality video apps and you can’t go wrong with either.
• VirtualDub Portable - Video conversion application. I have only used it once or twice. On Linux you the similar program is called AVIdemux or if you want even greater power then use MediaCoder but it’s not quite portable.

Images

• GIMP Portable - For image and Photo manipulation, this is the Open Source app of choice. Similar in some ways to PhotoShop, but also different enough that there is a learning curve.
• Cornice Portable - For quick image viewing as thumbnails. I especially like this over the default view in Vista that takes like 30 seconds to come up after clicking a picture. Quick and easy but no corresponding app in Linux.

Audio

• Coolplayer+ Portable - An open source audio player similar to the old WinAmp. Not much for bells and whistles, but it does play music streams. I usually just use MPlayer if I’ve got a set of files or playlist to play though…
• Audacity Portable - Record and manipulate audio encodings. Useful when you have the need to change an audio recording (i.e. chop out a particular part).
• BonkEnc Portable - Extract, convert, and encode various audio formats.

Office Apps

• OpenOffice Portable - The open source alternative to pay office suites. It’s every bit as good, and less bloat. Your documents can be saved in proprietary formats or open formats
  • Alternatives
    • AbiWord Portable - If you don’t want the full OpenOffice suite but want a lighter implementation to do documents with.
• Thunderbird Portable - Email client similar to Outlook. However, I use GMail exclusively for all my email needs.
• Sunbird Portable - Calendar App similar to what is in Outlook. However, again I use Google for my calendaring needs.
• GnuCash Portable - I don’t use a program anymore for my finances. I strictly use online banking through USBank and bill-pay and work at simplifying my life and finances down to a basic level instead of trying to track all the complex budgeting.
• Task Coach Portable - Again I’ve moved to an online solution for this functionality, because I want my data to be wherever I am. But it’s a nice app if you carry your thumb drive around with you.
• PDF Apps
  • Sumatra PDF Portable - A lightweight PDF viewer… so you won’t have to install Adobe bloatware. Use Evince on Ubuntu.
  • PDFTK Builder Portable - When you want to collate, split, or otherwise change a pdf file. pdftk on Ubuntu.

Security

• KeePass Portable - An excellent and very secure storage for your passwords and other information. And your saved password file will work on versions whether linux or Windows.
• Truecrypt - Keep all of your data completely secure. With Truecrypt you create encrypted storage at the file, partition or drive level. And the best feature is the hidden container system giving you complete deniability.

Utilities

• PeaZip Portable - Excellent. Supports dragging a file onto the interface. Opens just about everything. 7Z, 7-Zip sfx, ARJ, BZip2, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, GZip, ISO, JAR, LHA, LZH, NSIS, OOo, PAQ, PEA, QUAD, RAR, RPM, split, TAR, Z, ZIP
  • Alternatives
    • 7-Zip Portable - Interface not as intuitive and only for Windows. 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, LZH, CHM, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM, DEB
• ClamWin Portable - It is a manual scan only system, but you can take it with you and scan when you need it. It is fairly slow, but reliable. The Clam AV Engine is also around for Linux although it’s not needed quite as much as Windows.
• Command Prompt Portable - A simple way to have a command prompt setup just the way you like it on any machine.
• On-Screen Keyboard Portable - Mouse driven support for keyboarding.
• Eraser Portable - Securely erase files off of Windows. They will be gone for good. On Linux you would use Wipe.
• SpeedCrunch Portable - A full featured algebraic calculator.
• Toucan - Backup, Sync, Secure and more
• Undelete-Plus Portable - Recover files that have been accidentally deleted… well as long as they weren’t Erased…
• System Info Windows - Get tons of very valuable information from the windows system you are using. Great for troubleshooting or cataloging.
• WinDirStat Portable - Originally I used Treesize on my portable drive, but after playing with WinDirStat I started to see the power of it. The graphical display of the relative sizes of your files helps tremendously to determine where the space is being taken up.
  • Alternatives
    • Treesize - The free version is portable, simple, and easy to use. Not quite as nice at finding disk usage as WinDirStat though.

Burning Utilities

• DVDStyler Portable
• InfraRecorder Portable - Accomplish just about all your burning needs. Create DVD’s including Dual layer, Create Audio cd’s from mp3s and other audio files, plus much more.
  • Alternatives
    • Burrrn
    • ImgBurn

Games

• Jooleem Portable
• Mines-Perfect Portable
• PokerTH Portable
• Sudoku Portable

Still to explain

• ConvertAll Portable
• Cygwin - not really portable, but if you use it much… it might be worth the time to setup
• eMule
• EssentialPIM Pro
• KLDetector
• Lightscreen Portable
• PNotes Portable
• PStart
• RegShot
• Tight VNC
• uTorrent
• WildReplace
• WinMd5Sum Portable
• WinMerge Portable
• WinSCP Portable
• WinWGet Portable
• Wireless Keyview
• Xampp-Win32
• Xenon File Manager Portable
• Xnote Stopwatch

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