[ubuntu-uk] (no subject)

[Matthew Macdonald-Wallace]

On Mon, 4 Jun 2007 10:18:53 +0000, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 11:12:59AM +0100, Andy wrote:
>> On 04/06/07, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
>> > There is a slight flaw with those options. They assume you are using
> linux
>> > on the internet connected computer (in your case the library). This is
>> > unlikely to be the case, and as such you would need to look at the
> file
>> > generated (on your usb key) and manually grab the individual files
> onto the
>> > key.
>>

<snip />

>> or another possibility would be to some how fetch a list of all
>> installed packages put that on a USB stick an have an application that
>> runs also on the stick and when hooked up to an Internet connected
>> computer it downloads new package lists, finds out which packages to
>> update and lets you chose new packages to install and grabs the files
>> so they can be installed when you get back to your Linux PC. to be
>> really clever it could install them for you when you get back.
>>
> 
> Remember the KISS principle and that this USB key is being put into
> someone
> elses computer - in this case the library. You cannot assume that you can
> run applications from or install applications from the USB key.
> 
> Maybe the wget script could be translated into an html page which the user
> just clicks the files to get them.

One of the things that I do like about MS is the fact that just about any PC auto-runs removable media by default.

Granted this slows you down a bit if the USB drives are disabled, however a small piece of VBScript set to autorun on insertion of the pendrive that downloaded the debs to the USBStick then a bash script that installs them to the Linux PC would probably work.

Fusing technology (and fairly basic technology at that!) has always been a favourite of mine... :)

Cheers,

Matt.