And the award goes to… Portable Apps!

Since it's big win at the 2009 SourceForge Community Choice Awards, I thought we should take a look at one of my favorite Open Source Projects.

I use a variety of software and time and time again when I'm at work I find myself using this one quite a bit. The software I'm talking about is Portable Apps. Like it sounds, it is software on the go. It can be run from any USB Drive or even an iPod connected via USB. What would the advantage of this be? Say you need to print a word document at a friend's house... then you come to realize that your friend doesn't have Word or OpenOffice. You're up a creek without a paddle... right? Wrong! The very same USB Drive that you have the document on can now be used to run a portable version of OpenOffice. Pretty neat huh?

Portable Apps

Installing Portable Apps to you USB is straightforward. Download the installation file to your computer. There are a couple of choices to choose from; the Suite (with no Applications), Suite Lite (with an assortment of Applications), and Suite Standard (with the Suite Lite Apps plus OpenOffice). Once downloaded, plug in your USB drive and install the program to the USB's root (when you plug in your USB, it will be given a letter drive such as "F:\"). This could take awhile depending on which Suite you're installing. (For more info on installing the Suite and other apps check out their support section. )

Portable Apps has a wide variety of open source software in portable form that you can choose from. At last count they had 72 programs available plus the attractive suite to access them from. Programs range from the aforementioned OpenOffice.org to Gimp and utilities like 7-Zip. So be more productive... and don't be stuck without your paddle... err usb drive.

About Aaron

Computer Instructor for J. Ryan Solutions, a company which manages computer labs in housing developments throughout the city of Boston, Cambridge, and in the Washington, DC area.