I have succeeded in installing Blender on my USB disk and on my MP3 player!
Yes, the power of Blender can now be taking with you on other computers without having to install it on a computer. Just buy a USB disk (or use an mp3 player) and install Blender to that drive. You can even save your .blend files on it as well!
Talk about handy.
That’s when I started to look for other such software, and it turns out there’s something called Portable Apps which can be used to install portable versions of OpenOffice, GIMP, Firefox and more onto an external drive. All you need then is a computer running windows and with a USB port.
Blender + the standard version of PortableApps took 266 MB on my USB drive, leaving another 150+ for files.
I’m just glad to know I can take my favorite apps with me on holiday now.
What about you guys?
P.S. I don’t want to start another thread for this question but does anyone know of any (preferably open source and maybe portable like the above examples) games to improve one’s brain (like memory, sudoka and such)? I’m planning on starting to use those to get the red mass working (yes, healthy brains look red from all the blood).
Any app that’s portable rocks. I have Portable Firefox, VLC, and 7-Zip, as well as the free version of Movable Python on my computer at work. Administrative privileges? Sure!
lolz this is meant for people that are constantly working and are trying to work on a computer that doesnt have sertain softwear instaled… very usefull for tech guys that work off other peoples computers and dont want to go throu the hastle of instalng stuff… to sure why blender would be mad portable thou… lol
@Skottish: never thought about admin privileges… you serious you can bypass those on computers running windows? Awesome
@Free_ality: yes you run the program from whichever portable device you use. How are ya gonna model something on an mp3 player? Just plug it into a pc and you can run your favorite app without needing to install it on the computer (seeing as it’s installed on the external drive) and without leaving a trace.
You can run blender on a PocketPC though. “What ya doing there?” “Just making the next CG summer blockbuster…”
@Vitaliy: It’s not everyday an app just installs on whatever drive you install it to, right? I just was curious and said “install Blender at F:” and it worked. There’s a bit of lag sometimes, but that’s to be expected of course.
Ha, that was exactly what I meant, what were you gonna use blender for on your 1in MP3 screen(no color…)
ha, my friend did that with his IPod, and I thought that most mp3 polayers could do it…
And nearly ruined mine(not an IPod, I’m not that cool)
Anway, pretty sweet man, I’ll definately hit this up…
Drew
Yep this is pretty cool…my new flas disk come with the special U3 software which has a control menu where you can download free portable apps…for your USB!well i got a 1 gig usb so i have firfox,skype,blender,audicity portable,windows movie maker, and some other stuff…and i still have around 850 mb left!!!this is awesome…and it comes with this software which is like msn…but has aim,icq,msn,yahoo all in one!!!
check it out at: www.u3.com!
I was amazed by GimpPortable. VERY useful.
regarding Blender: if you use the *.zip and not the installer you always had (and still have) the possibility to just copy the folder anywhere you want and run it from there.
Like you have no admin-rights on a machine, go to c: emp extract blender.zip there, do your things, delete the subdir and you leave without a trace.
(Don’t forget to take your *.blend and the rendered images with you
Wouldn’t it be bad for a flash drive if you run programs from it? I’m not sure I think I heard this from somewhere - that if you run programs from a flash drive it destroys it.
Not quite.
Flash drives have a limited number of what they call ‘read/write’ cycles. That is, all the zillions of memory bits in the flash drive will wear out eventually.
Certain programs load and save data constantly as they run. These tend to wear out a flash drive faster than usual. I’m not sure if Blender is one of them. It will gradually fill up with bad bits, and any program has part of itself stored on a bad bit will become un usable.
Anyway, you should always keep your flash drive backed up in case it starts to wear out.
I’m at work right now viewing this forum in Portlable Firefox. In fact, if you get lucky you can find Flash downloads that don’t use the installer; they just dump the files into your plug-ins folder!
Because the limited read/write of flash drives some apps have special versions of the software optimized for storing in memory instead of (flash) drive. There is a special lunux even for that purpose
I have a 1GB flash-drive/memory-stick/usb-stick/thumb-drive and use that and not my MP3 player (no of course no ipod but Creative of course)
This is kind of old news… People have been doing it for years. But it’s awesome nonetheless. Every time I insert my U3 smartdrive, the computer immediately takes every setting that I have set on my computer… it’s just like being at home.
Yep :). Stupid me got rid of skype to save memory (turns out that all I had to do was compress a couple of ultra high res pics (6000x6000!!!). And I had like, 40 of the same picture. I think my parents messed around with it a little, and they’re not very good with electronics. Anything could happen.
