I Occupy Space

I was sitting at one of my my school’s library’s computers, browsing through Portable Apps’ list of portable applications. I came accros their operating systems section, which only contained System 7. Then I got to wondering how great it’d be if there was a portable version of Linux that you could run from within Windows (or any other OS), and right when I got home, there was a post on Lifehacker about just such a thing: Portable Ubuntu.

Running Portable Ubuntu involves extracting an archive and then using the command prompt to run it. Unarchive the folder (which takes awhile) and the next step depends on what version of Windows you’re running. In Windows XP, navigate to the folder and then type run_portable_ubuntu, then hit enter. In Vista or Windows 7, you’ll have to open the command prompt as an aministrator, but that’s the only difference; you just navigate to the folder and type run_portable_ubuntu.

You’re computer will strain for a couple minutes while Linux boots. My old IBM desktop whirred pretty loudly. Just be patient. Eventually, you should see a movable GNOME menubar, and that’s it. You can acces your winows file by navigating to /mnt/C.

The best thing about Portable Ubuntu is that the changes you make to it stay with it, so if you install a new program, you don’t have to install it every time you use Portable Ubuntu.

Portable Ubuntu is free, and it’s a great download if your looking to experiment with Linux without installing anything, or if you just want a portable OS that you can run within Windows.

Screenshots:

Linux newbs are usually scared of the terminal, it’s commands are nonsensical to them, and they’re afraid of doing something wrong, especially if they have to work as the root user. Some of them might not even be sure if they’re in the root account or not, which is why this hack is so useful. By adding two lines of code to our /root/.bashrc file, you can easily distinguish which account you’re using. When you’re working as root, the prompt will turn red, and when you’re not, it turns green:

Just add these two lines to the end of the ~/.bashrc file:

PS1=’${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[33[01;31m\]\u@\h\[33[00m\]:\[33[01;34m\]\w\[33[00m\]\$ ‘

And:

PS1=’${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[33[01;32m\]\u@\h\[33[00m\]:\[33[01;34m\]\w\[33[00m\]\$ ‘

[via Lifehacker]