Top 5 Portable or Live OS
By Partho, Gaea News NetworkMonday, August 24, 2009
Installation of an OS such as Windows is no cake walk. It also gobbles up a chunk of your hard disk. Alternately, portable or live CDs allow you to boot into an operating system without installing anything to your hard drive. The installation is hassle free and doesn’t run your hard disk into risk. Download the ISO image burn the CD. Insert the disc and boot your machine, that’s it. Moreover, with a compressed format scores of application get loaded within the limited storage space. Live CDs and USB OS are widely used in embedded systems for system administration, data recovery, or even testing of operating system distributions without installtion. If you are one of those looking for a portable or live OS, we have a list of top 5 portable/live OS.
1. BackTrack
It is a live CD Linux distribution that focuses on penetration testing. Probably the most secured portable OS, BackTrack is a merger of two former security related distros - Whax and Auditor Security Collection. It includes more than 300 security tools. Based on SLAX distribution a live CD derived from Slackware, it runs a patched 2.6.20 kernel. BackTrack offers both KDE and Fluxbox desktop environments.
On the desktop backtrack features some ordinary programs, such as Firefox, Gaim, K3b, and XMMS with enticing wallpapers and window transparency.
However, it the security features in Backtrack that adds the power punch. It allows you to adopt an attack methodology that starts with collecting information and ends with hiding your actions.
3. Knoppix
A Debian-based Linux distribution, Knoppix is one of the first Linux live CDs available for Linux aficionados. Knoppix is an aggregation of sorted out GNU/Linux software that offers automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. The live system can be used as productive Linux system for the desktop, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. The system is packed with 2GB of open source applications that include testing disk integrity, recovering files, reading corrupted drives, and more. It features 2000 programs packed into the disc ranging from disc recovery to media playback.
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3. Puppy Linux
Apt to its nomenclature, Puppy Linux is just 100MB in size, light enough to be loaded on anything between a CD to USB drive. Well, the interface is intuitive to make things easier for non-Linux users. The basic tools for partitioning and file recovery are readily available. What still remains to say that the portable OS is better with web browsing and basic computing than any other function.
4. Ubuntu
Jaunty Jackpole is fast growing into a mainstream Linux distribution with an active community. Even without an install you can access the full-fledged computing features of Ubuntu. Ubuntu live CD comes loaded with some cool features that include Open Office, Firefox, Pidgin, the BitTorrent client Transmission, and the open source image editor GIMP. What else can you ask of a Linux distribution. It can perfectly operate on laptops, desktops and servers.
5. Windows XP portable USB Stick Edition
If you are looking to boot up Windows XP using your USB key, here’s what you gotta do. To boot with Windows XP portable, enter into the BIOS setting and change the BOOT sequence. Place the removable drive at the top and try to reboot on your PC.
