Plug ‘n Work
FingerGear has a killer new product. You walk up to any computer, plug in a USB memory thingie, and have an instant personal, safe computing environment. It comes with the highly reliable (Debian Linux) OS, OpenOffice, Firefox, Evolution (Outlook-ish e-mail client), an IM client and a PDF viewer.
I may wait before I buy one for a couple of reasons.
1. It’s just too expensive. There’s no way that 256MB plus free software should cost $150. I recently purchased a couple of 512MB USB memory sticks from BestBuy for $20 (after two rebates). The price will plummet when there’s competition. This isn’t brain surgery — there are how-tos out there, but I’ll gladly pay a reasonable “integration tax” for someone who puts the pieces together.
2. I use and like OpenOffice (a very capable set of applications that gives MS Office a run for the money). For a Plug ‘n Work OS + Apps on a memory stick product AbiWord would need much less space and will load faster. Admittedly, it’s only a word processor. Do you have a problem with that?
My dream: a 1GB USB stick with this set of OS + tools selling for $99. Bring it on!
[via Tom's Hardware Guide]
[see also reference to virtualization with keychain Linux]
[see also Portable Virtual Privacy Machine]
[see also Librinex]
July 23rd, 2005 at 8:43 pm
I have an instant personal, safe computing environment. It’s called a Macintosh iBook. It’s in my backpack all the time.
My USB memory thingie is called a 1GB iPod Shuffle. It plays music when I want out of one half, and holds my mini-computing environment in the other half if for some reason I need to jack into someone’s PC. The 1GB iPod Shuffle is a screaming deal at $99 refurbished with full warranty from Apple. Oh yeah, it doesn’t have a battery door to break off and lose!