Hello list, A short time ago, I found http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_apps_suite/, which contains basically a complete set of office tools that can be run *entirely* from a USB key. The concept is: - find a Windows PC - put in your USB key - run OpenOffice, Firefox, Gaim, Nvu, Thunderbird, ... directly from your USB key, with no app installation required - save your files wherever - remove your USB key and leave, with nothing installed on the original PC As a consultant who battles regularly with limited toolsets at customer sites, this strikes me as an extremely handy way of working. Has anyone managed to setup a base R configuration that runs entirely from USB key? Being a regular user, but no expert, with R, it'd be very helpful for me if such a mechanism existed, but I've got no idea where to begin in building such a thing. Thanks in advance for any responses or suggestions Dave M.
David, I've run old version of R (2 years ago) from a CD and it worked well for me. I guess you could run R from a USB drive. On 11/16/05, David Mitchell <monch1962@gmail.com> wrote:> > Hello list, > > A short time ago, I found > http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_apps_suite/, which > contains basically a complete set of office tools that can be run > *entirely* from a USB key. The concept is: > - find a Windows PC > - put in your USB key > - run OpenOffice, Firefox, Gaim, Nvu, Thunderbird, ... directly from > your USB key, with no app installation required > - save your files wherever > - remove your USB key and leave, with nothing installed on the original PC > > As a consultant who battles regularly with limited toolsets at > customer sites, this strikes me as an extremely handy way of working. > > Has anyone managed to setup a base R configuration that runs entirely > from USB key? Being a regular user, but no expert, with R, it'd be > very helpful for me if such a mechanism existed, but I've got no idea > where to begin in building such a thing. > > Thanks in advance for any responses or suggestions > > Dave M. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >-- WenSui Liu (http://statcompute.blogspot.com) Senior Decision Support Analyst Cincinnati Children Hospital Medical Center [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
On 17 November 2005 at 14:16, David Mitchell wrote:
| Hello list,
|
| A short time ago, I found
| http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_apps_suite/, which
| contains basically a complete set of office tools that can be run
| *entirely* from a USB key. The concept is:
| - find a Windows PC
| - put in your USB key
| - run OpenOffice, Firefox, Gaim, Nvu, Thunderbird, ... directly from
| your USB key, with no app installation required
| - save your files wherever
| - remove your USB key and leave, with nothing installed on the original PC
|
| As a consultant who battles regularly with limited toolsets at
| customer sites, this strikes me as an extremely handy way of working.
|
| Has anyone managed to setup a base R configuration that runs entirely
| from USB key? Being a regular user, but no expert, with R, it'd be
| very helpful for me if such a mechanism existed, but I've got no idea
| where to begin in building such a thing.
Short answer:
Yes but using Linux, requiring a larger USB stick and some fiddling.
Longer answer:
Quantian (http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian) is a "everything,
the kitchen sink and some" Linux distribution running off a DVD. Quantian
is
focussed on quantitative / numeric apps, and tends to include R plus related
goodies -- the last release had an almost complete set of CRAN and
BioConductor packages. The raw size of the last release is around 2 GB,
corresponding to 6.6 GB expanded. Marco Caliari, who often contributes
improved boot code to Quantian, has managed to boot Quantian off a USB
stick. I didn't manage to do that with my laptop, possibly because of
limitations in its bios. Some of this was discussed in past threads on the
quantian-general mailing list.
Lots-o-work suggestion:
To not require a huge USB stick, you could try to shrink a given live
cdrom such as Knoppix or Ubuntu, then add R and other goodies such that
you're left with around 512 MB compressed. Then throw it onto a USB stick
and
make it bootable.
Shortcut:
Order a Quantian DVD. Some folks sell them pre-made for less than $5.
Experiment with that, If you like it, consider making your own mini-distro.
Or stick with the DVD and use it directly with the USB stick for your
configuration, data, demos, ...
Even shorter:
R is perfectly "relocatable". If you install the Windows binary onto
the USB drive, it will run fine. You'll probably need to add editors and
other tools.
Hope this helps, Dirk
--
Statistics: The (futile) attempt to offer certainty about uncertainty.
-- Roger Koenker, 'Dictionary of Received Ideas of Statistics'
See the rw-FAQ Q2.6 for a more precise answer than has yet appeared in this thread. A while back (for 2.1.0) some aspects of R were optimized for usage from a slow (and possibly read-only) drive. This does presume that the sites you visit will allow you to run programs from an external drive, and in my experience that is often explicitly disallowed. On Thu, 17 Nov 2005, David Mitchell wrote:> Hello list, > > A short time ago, I found > http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_apps_suite/, which > contains basically a complete set of office tools that can be run > *entirely* from a USB key. The concept is: > - find a Windows PC > - put in your USB key > - run OpenOffice, Firefox, Gaim, Nvu, Thunderbird, ... directly from > your USB key, with no app installation required > - save your files wherever > - remove your USB key and leave, with nothing installed on the original PC > > As a consultant who battles regularly with limited toolsets at > customer sites, this strikes me as an extremely handy way of working. > > Has anyone managed to setup a base R configuration that runs entirely > from USB key? Being a regular user, but no expert, with R, it'd be > very helpful for me if such a mechanism existed, but I've got no idea > where to begin in building such a thing. > > Thanks in advance for any responses or suggestions-- Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
My experiences parallel Dirk's - I also work for several financial institutions and large corporates, and probably 80% of them allow me to plug in a USB key and move files around. Yep, I find it strange too... Dave M. On 11/18/05, Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> wrote:> > On 17 November 2005 at 07:37, Prof Brian Ripley wrote: > | I would be surprised to find a PC in a work environment that was bootable > | from USB or even from DVD/CD. Even in academia we have such things turned > | off (and it would be a disciplinary offence to run your own OS on > | a University-owned machine). > > Yes, though it really depends on how well organised and run a workplace is [ > having worked for a few different employers in financial services, I can > assure you that this varies significantly. ] But your point is spot-on, and > I should have mentioned it. E.g. at my current (well-run) workplace, USB > access is disabled (and we don't get admin rights).