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GlobeTrotter: Mandrake-based 40GB Linux Mobile Desktop
joestar writes "Mandrakesoft & LaCie have just launched "GlobeTrotter", a ultra-compact 40 GB bootable USB hard-drive pre-loaded with Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official. It may be plugged to any available PC with a USB 1 or USB 2 port, automatically recognizes the host-PC's hardware, and then is ready to use. Multiple uses can be imagined, from the office/internet workstation to the multimedia jukebox! The concept is quite similar to Mandrakemove, excepted that it's way more powerful than a USB-key based system! And for $219 it's a credible alternative to a laptop."
Dude - that's a mirror, not a computer screen
because if anyone uses these on any site where I am responsible for IT infrastructure and security they will definitely appreciate something with smooth contours.
;-)
You know where it will end up
But seriously, these things sound like a major security problem waiting to happen. Imagine some 'visitor' who comes to your establishment, plugs into an unused computer and starts probing and sucking at your network.
It's a damn nightmare
There is no way that an external hard drive is equivalent to a laptop. This thing doesn't have a keyboard or screen. What are you going to do on the plane, show it off to the other passengers? Viable alternative. mutter.
http://xkcd.com/386/
...to grab the entire contents of a G5 at the Apple Store.
Say hello to my little sig.
Imagine ... a beowulf cluster of these.
Why don't you imagine a beowulf cluster of slashdot moderators modding you down instead...
Oh no! They're coming after me!!
Little Bricklets
It would be simple to use whatever system you come across as a linux system. Simply plug in the drive, boot, bootstrap, emerge system, compile a kernel, build some choice packages, wait a few days and voila, instant gentoo box.
-Note: this is a joke.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
So the old maxim holds true yet again: Once an attacker has physical access to the target, all you can do is sit back and watch the pwnage. Or trigger the halon. It kinda depends on your situation.
One problem with those mini CDs, though - if you encounter a machine with a slot-load drive that can't boot off of USB, you can't boot the drake installation.
Well, you can try, but one would be an idiot to put any other than a full sized CD/DVD in a slotload drive - it may go in, but it probably isn't coming back out.
"I've never seen "USB" as an option in the "A, C, CDROM"
You young whipper-snappers with your "CD-ROM boot" and your "network boot" are all a bunch of sissies and don't know it! Why, back in my day you were given one option: floppy drive! Hard drives were too expensive and required a team of oxen to get the durned things spinning, so everything was on a truckload of floppy disks.
And when I say floppy, I mean floppy! Those things were flopper than you were when you walked in on your grandmother and I this morning! Have you ever tried putting a pancake into a disk drive?
Them rich snots down the street, they had one of them new-fangled "double density" drive. Managed to get PC-DOS down to less than half a dozen disks (unless you included GW-BASIC!). Us, we were stuck with single sided, single density. Do you have any idea how many of those it takes to fit just one Library of Congress on? Station wagons full!
"Network boot..." bah! We had a network! It didn't just look like a garden hose, it was a garden hose! We'd roll one of our floppy disks up and shove it in and blow it on through to our friends in order to share our music files!
You ever hear Asia being played by your internal speaker, boy?