Microsoft & SanDisk To Provide Desktop on Thumb Drive

Jesus Christ writes "An Information Week article reports that Microsoft is teaming up with SanDisk to provide users a complete image of their desktops in their pockets, allowing them access not only to their data...but also their applications and user interface setup while on the go. 'The companies plan to add a security layer to the offering using SanDisk's TrustedFlash security and digital rights management technology. The effort will elevate "simple flash storage to a whole new level of customer benefit," said Will Poole, corporate VP for Microsoft's Market Expansion Group. Microsoft also plans to seek out third party-hardware developers to support the initiative, the company said. As part of the plan, SanDisk will phase out its U3 technology, which adds some smart features to USB devices. Independent software developers that have created U3-compatible applications will be offered help migrating their products to the new technology, which has yet to be named.'"

Re:Let me guess

[ClaraBow]

I RTFA, it will support XP. I jumped the gun!

Re:Let me guess

[Anarchysoft]

Microsoft said it plans to add support for the technology into its Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.

Needless to say, GNU/Linux, etc has ran beautifully on removable media for years. I'm surprised MS didn't go for a specialized Windows CE.

Re:A replacement to U3?

[nine-times]

As technology improves, it will be interesting to see if someone one-ups this idea and provides the entire operating system in something closer to an Ubuntu Live CD.

Everyone is doing this already. Ok... everyone except Microsoft. You've been able to run a complete version of Linux or OSX off of a USB drive for a while now.

Re:Been There, Done That

[aichpvee]

You could use udev to mount your USB drive to /home/[username] under Linux.

Re:U3

[yaff]

You can remove U3. Look here. [u3.com]

I had to blitz a memory stick for my father-in-law. As I recall, this program hung while reformatting the stick. Scary, but it did work.

Re:Remember the good old days...

[N3Roaster]

That was previously the case on the Macintosh where the executable typically had everything it needed in the resource fork of the file, but these days the executable file is buried in a folder with a .app filename extension and the folder also contains graphics and other resources that normally would have been in the resource fork or as separate files somewhere else. It's a nice solution, but the default shell Apple provides isn't as smart as the Finder when dealing with these, so running graphical applications from the command line isn't nearly as nice as it should be (you can't just add /Applications to $PATH and say, Preview list_of_files). Still, that's much nicer than the application being an executable file, a few dozen DLLs scattered throughout the system, and a couple hundred registry entries. (On a related note, why do I think I've heard about this already being done with Linux without the DRM?)

Just Use PortableApps.com

[CritterNYC]

Just use PortableApps.com [portableapps.com] today. It has better compatibility, working with most Windows OSes (95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista) as well as Wine under *nix. It's open so you can add any software [portableapps.com] that's already portable to it. And it's much more popular than U3 ever was, with over 20,000,000 apps downloaded. Plus it works from any drive you'd like: USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, network share, etc... so you're never tied down.

Re:Ripping off MojoPac.

[CritterNYC]

MojoPac only works on admin-level accounts on Windows XP. No guest or limited accounts (so no libraries, net cafes, offices, schools, hotel business centers, etc). No Windows 2000 or Vista. So, it's pretty limited.

It's a great idea, but not with MS involved..

[the_rajah]

I've been doing this for years, going clear back to toting a Zip disk around with me that had Eudora on it, executing the program from the disk along with carrying the files I'm working with at the time.

I'm doing this now with my sandisk titanium Cruzer 2 Gig. I've got my email client, Eudora, that runs just fine executing from the flash drive. My FTP client, leapftp is similar. Effectively, my "My Documents" resides on the flash drive, too. Then there's the suite of portable applications from http://portableapps.com/ [portableapps.com] I use portable Firefox, OO and Putty and have lots of room left over on the 2 Gig drive.

Since all that good stuff is on that little flash drive, I back it up automatically every night so if I lose it, it's no biggie. Encryption is a good idea..

I'm with the other comments about being nervous if MS is running the show. It's going to be more about restrictions than enabling.

U3 Uninstaller

[localroger]

I did not know what U3 was when I got my 512 MB SanDisk, which I got simply because it was the cheapest per MB available at the time. When I plugged it in I noticed that it wanted to install a bunch of garbage. So I unplugged it, held shift down, plugged it back in, and watched it install itself as a normal flash drive. I deleted all the pre-existing crap on the drive, and never had another problem with it.

Re:Requires Another License? What about VM?

[Anonymous Coward]

VMware already has this. It's called VMware ACE

http://www.vmware.com/products/ace/ [vmware.com]

Re:U3 Uninstaller

[Vexorian]

It is not the case for all of them, my Kingston drive kept the U3 stuff in the firmware and I had to download http://www.u3.com/uninstall/ [u3.com] to get rid of it.

You're loving it.

[Erris]

I'll be sure to ask my employer to open up the firewall to I can "sftp" into my home box. That sounds a lot easier than an automated ~/ mount from a four-inch thumbdrive I can carry around in my pocket.

You can run sftp on any port you want, so you don't have to ask anyone for anything.

If your boss shares the extreme ignorance and paranoia expressed in the first sentence, nothing you want will work. Your employer epoxied the USB ports years ago and will never purchase or turn on whatever will allow your marvelous automounting security hole.

Re:Let me guess

[Machtyn]

I'm not sure how much the DSL takes up when used with a USB drive, except that they will gladly sell you a 128MB USB drive with its 50MB image on it. I've currently got the 50MB DSL image running in VMWare on a work computer (keeps from having to bug the boss who's not totally convinced on OSS, but gives me, as QA, the leeway to use whatever I need.) Anyway, if you haven't guessed, DSL's image, fully running, is 50MB.

MS...back to stealing again

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if portableapps or one of the other groups could sue them for patent or copyright infringement...probably not but it's a nice thought.

Since portableapps was previously mentioned, I won't go into more detail. I didn't see a link in the above posts so here it is: http://portableapps.com/ [portableapps.com]

Install this on your USB key drive and you will have an on the go system that has email, browser, word processor, etc.
It will work in linux as well.