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GlobeTrotter: Mandrake-based 40GB Linux Mobile Desktop

Posted by timothy on from the if-you-can-boot-from-usb dept.

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."

2 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Viable alternative to a laptop? by gexen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First off, I think it's great that a distribution is doing this. If you're a Linux evangelist, I would imagine a Live-CD may not do everything you want to do.

    But, the main point of this post is to ask how is this a viable alternative to a laptop? I always defined viable alternative as a product that offers a similiar product set designed to do the same job. How exactly is a hard drive loaded with Linux comprable to a laptop?

  2. Re:"For computers that don't support booting from by interiot · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It doesn't completely defeat the purpose:
    • If the CD only needs to boot, load USB drivers, and hand off control to the USB drive, it can be shrunk to a business-card CD. I'm guessing that a business-card CD + 2.5" hard drive isn't any less convenient than one full-size CD.
    • With 40GB available, you can have 58 times as many programs available as you can with a 700MB CD.
    • Hard drives can be written to as well as read from, so you can use it to carry documents and MP3s along with you, and don't have to stream these over the network like you'd have to with Knoppix.
    In short, it's waaaaay more functional than a bootable CD.