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Portable Firefox and Thunderbird
RHLJay writes "-For the Road Warrior on the Go-
If you have a laptop, desktop, and/or work PC keeping the information from Firefox and Thunderbird
sync'd with each other is hard, not to mention the extensions. Not anymore - John Haller has packaged both Firefox and Thunderbird into 'Flash drive friendly' executables which can be run directly from a USB flash drive. Visit his site for more info. Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird."
This is damn handy when you're trying to patch/clean a spyware riddled machine. Sometimes it's almost impossible to get stuff working with so much crap clogging up the browser. This thing is uber useful, IMHO.
Hey slashdot, two weeks ago called. They'd like their news back.
As a computer technician, there have been several times where I have been prevented from getting a vital file off the internet when trying to repair somebody's computer. Usually this is because IE has become a spyware infested rathole.
If I had the ability to carry a browser with me, use it, download files, etc. without even having to install anything, hot damn, that'd save some time.
Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
Why did I have to read half the page to figure out what version of FireFox/ThunderBird he had packaged though ?? (of course it's windows, I wonder why I even wondered, duh)
OTOH I suppose it's easier to find a random Windows PC than a real computer nowadays... (gratuitious flaimbait, I know)
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Plus with all the modifications they did for Firefox, such as Download History Cleared, Browser History Disabled, Form Info Saving Disabled, No Disk Cache, and No permanent cookies... it won't take up a very large footprint. Mind you, Firefox installed only takes up a meager 8.6Mb.
Thunderbird on the other hand compresses EXEs and DLLs with UPX. They also recompressed the JAR files (which are ZIP files).
and then get a shit load of spyware, viruses, etc. at the same time? No thanks.
Now I can use firefox at work where the I.S. Nazi's only allow I.E. morons.. I was actually just talking about this with a co worker to see if I could do it... looks like it was done for me!
Why do I have this bad habit? Because I first started using flash drives on Win98SE, and those manufacturer's drivers always flushed the data to the drive when available. I could unplug them the moment the drive actvity led stopped flashing. When I "eject" the flash drive from 2K, I can see Windows do a final file access to it before telling me it's safe to disconnect. Leaves me really wondering what happens to data in the drive when I get a power failure or BSoD before an eject.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
submit it again. maybe they'll do a dupe on it.
I would like to see this done for many different apps (browser, email, IM, blah blah), basically anything that requires user preferences... package a small binary and the preferences together such that they can run off the USB drive. With more and more people owning/working with multiple machines, this would be really useful.
*yawn*
Honestly, have you actually tried Firefox? It loads quickly, and it doesn't require any configuring, at least on my machine, aside from standard installation-type stuff, it didn't. Unlike IE, though, it has several bonuses: You can configure it to do all kinds of cool and useful things if you're a Morlock instead of an Eloi (thank you Neal Stephenson), using any of a variety of useful tools; it comes with tabbed browsing; and it's pretty much adware-spyware-popup proof, unlike IE, every version of which (until XP SP 2) came with a handy "Always Trust Content from the Gator Corporation" checkbox. Bottom line is, Firefox is a much more flexible, streamlined browser, to suit a variety of needs, including those of the eloi who don't want to mess with all the messy details behind the pretty pictures on the screen. Comparatively, IE doesn't allow nearly as much useful flexibility, although you can get the Google toolbar if you are hard up (though that basically comes integrated in Firefox).
---
she won't let you fly, but she might let you sing
In the MozillaZine Forum, many discussed putting the win32 and linux binaries on a single stick & having them share profiles. Might as well throw in the Mac binaries too & then you'd have something really useful!
A nice touch for this would be to have the USB drives autorun launch a scrip that would identify if its plugged into its "home" computer and would then sync up its boormarks with the computer.
Not really weird. It appears that Firefox, when it doesn't recognize what you typed in the address bar as an actual address, tries to use Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" system to get to the actual page. For instance, type "quicktime" in the address bar, and you'll get sent to apple.com/quicktime, since that's the first result on a Google search for "quicktime". The problem therefore lies in Firefox not recognizing the extra "http://" as extraneous, and instead acting like it's a search term. It just so happens that the first result for a search on "http://" with Google is Microsoft's home page.
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If you need to use both a web browser and an email client on a regular basis in multiple locations, then you don't need these customized builds, there is already something around for you, it's called Mozilla. Maybe some of you recent Firefox-from-IE converts have never used Mozilla or think it reminds you of Netscape (Firefox reminds me of IE). Give it a chance though. It allows you to use roaming profiles which is exactly what this article is about. You also aren't wasting your system resources like you are when you run Thunderbird and Firefox at the same time. You generally save over 30MB of RAM by just running the Mozilla Application Suite. This is because you only have one instance of the Gecko engine running instead of two. Oh, and you can plop Mozilla right onto a flash drive from the zip file builds available from the Mozilla.org Foundation.
If you want this same concept on a larger scale, look at Flash Linux - Linux with GNOME 2.8 on a 256 USB key.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
In light of this new portible Firefox release, I'd like to point out that Portable IE blew goats. It crashed ALL THE TIME, and lacked functional from IE (which lacks functionality anyway!).
I haven't had a chance to use portable firefox yet, but somehow I know I won't be disapointed.
The funny thing is that Portable IE was released by microsoft themselves
Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
there is an extension for firefox (not sure how it would work on the removable version) to ftp your bookmarks down on launch and up on exit... works pretty good - called bookmarks synchronizer
Whatever you use make sure to drop unison on your USB key. That way you can sync bidirectionally all kinds of stuff. Try it with home directory, emacs, eclipse etc.
It's double plus good.
evil is as evil does
Don't forget that a few other people have created portable versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, including myself. To check out my development, go here.
If you're running low on space by the time you hit thunderbird, you could also try jbmail which similarly is a secure mail client that can be run straight off removable media (but is very small, 1 mb). but it doesn't share data with firefox. Hell, it doesn't do HTML either (displays as text) which may be a shortcoming or a feature depending on how paranoid you are...
I'm having a problem at work. My desktop machine was just refreshed (lease ended on old machine, so I was issued a new machine). It looks like the IT department has disabled USB devices under W2K (I'm guessing they're worried I might be too productive). If I plug in a jump drive, or a palm pilot, W2K doesn't sense it. But, if I reboot with the USB device plugged in, the BIOS will see it (and, if I remember correctly, W2K will see it after the reboot). Does anyone have an idea what I can do to enable the USB devices under W2K?
I'm something of a big fan of Bart's Portable Evironment Windows boot disc. Native R/W ntfs support, supports McAfee command line virus scanner (with a custom gui), adaware, networking support and many other useful plugins. All in all, a great recovery tool. I wonder if this here portable firefox would work with the Bart boot disc. It would make a nice addition to an alreay powerful tool.
"Watch your cornhole, bud."
Realistically no more than 64MB, but you mightaswell just go for a 256MB one as it's only a few dollars more for a lot more space.
IntechHosting - Free domain, 2GB, PHP, £4.95/$8.95
I would be more interested in knowing how to use the same email directory and profile settings with both my Linux version of Thunderbird and my Windows version of Thunderbird. Has anyone ever tried this?
9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
I've been using Protable Firefox for the past few weeks. This with the addition of the Bookmark Synchronizer Extension, this makes sure I always have my favorite browser and all of my bookmarks with me at all times.
maybe with Remote Desktop or X11 forwarding?
I've made a similar project called "Friedfox". This is for when you (1) don't want to carry your Firefox around all the time and (2) can download from the Internet fairly fast. It is a small Firefox installer that installs to a Windows user's profile rather than the system, so it doesn't require Administrator-level access. In addition, I've streamlined the installer so it's a total of two clicks to install it.
Since IE will let you "Open" programs from the web, you can instant-launch the installer by going to http://friedfox.mozdev.org/go.
You can check out my cheesy web site for it.
I plan to set up a separate Internet2 mirror for college students soon. I'll announce this on the mailing list within a week or two.
|/usr/games/fortune
Laptop - Linux (Primary Work)
Laptop - Win (Primary Play)
Desktop - Win (home)
Admittedly, I have to keep my extensions in sync, but to keep data, here's what I do:
For Thunderbird
For Firefox:
So with these little tricks, I'm able to keep all three environments pretty much in sync. I know, this isn't for everyone -- I don't expect everyone to have 200+MB of IMAP space, or do I expect them to know how to write procmail rules, but it works for me.
S
I made a slight mistake in my previous message. Typing simply "quicktime" will send you to apple.com/quicktime/download/, whereas Quicktime.com goes to simply apple.com/quicktime/ (no "download" subdirectory). I thought the same thing as you at first, but it still works differently. I just tried "litigious bastards" in the address bar, and it did in fact forward me to sco.com (I'm using Firefox 1.0 final). HTTP.com brings me to an ad site, not Microsoft like "http://" does.
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Probably not many, but those that do would be the same ones who would be confused by the error page in the listings.
I wish I would have heard about this one sooner. I have been stuck in IE land on the PC's at my college due to the "Clean Slate" software that has ben installed on our computers on campus. However since we have a number of people running C compilers off of USB drives they havent disabled the USB ports yet. Looks like campus browsing just got a lot more pleasant.
Requiem
Does this Portable Firefox run off of read-only media (i.e. can you run it right off a CD-ROM, not CD-RW)?
(Some people mentioned read-only USB memory above, but I didn't get whether or not it actually worked).
Also, is there a Linux or OSX build somewhere that runs from read-only media?
Thanks in advance.
Anton Markov
*** Linux - May the source be with you! ***
This is really handy for those cases where you want to take your customized browser with you. Using the bookmarks off my thumb-drive I never have to worry anymore. Not to mention I can take this to the library or wherever I want and I can use firefox there isntead. An excellent idea.
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I recommend changing the "I'm feeling lucky" search behavior to a normal Google search
// Change to normal Google search:
user_pref("keyword.URL", "http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q =");
Insert into user.js (using ChromEdit extension):
Hi, I use it every once in a while.
.ini file you can really put it everywhere.
It liberated me from taking my laptop with me when I visit geek friends (there is always a free laptop I can use).
Also, if I am in an emergency and need to read email etc. I use my usb drive that I always carry. Webmail and simply using somebody's else computer are not an option with me as I need to use ssh to forward ports, both for my private email (that I host at home) and my work email/intranet.
Having said that, it is a little bit slow, although it may be because it is reading from a flash drive, but I can wait.
They should be documented a little bit better. For instance, they tell you that you can only install it in the main directory of the drive, but if you simply change the
I have not figured out how to handle multiple profiles though.
All in all, I am very happy with it.THANKS!
Well, I guess the cat is fully out of the bag now anyway. I was planning on mentioning this on Slashdot once I got everything over on MozDev finally (my server went over my bandwidth limit last month just from all the blog and tech site mentions... first time that's happened since I released Portable Firefox back in June).
In the past couple days, I've added launchers and instructions for Portable NVU and Portable Sunbird. Ready-to-use, fully-compressed packages will be forthcoming over the next week.
The releases are Windows-only for now. The launcher uses the Nullsoft Scriptable Installer System at the moment, which isn't compatible with Mac OSX.
I'm currently working on automating the full build process and switching to 7-zip for compression. Once done, I'll be releasing Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird in all localized languages supported by Firefox and Thunderbird.
Future plans include:
- Sync utility, running from the portable install, to copy bookmarks, extensions, cookies, etc back and forth
- Multi-OS install on the portable media, so the applications will run from every computer you use.
- Support for Enigmail/GPG out-of-the-box (Another developer has repackaged Portable Thunderbird with these included. I'll be updating my launchers to support this by default)
- Single, combined launcher for all products
- Full theme support
- Lots more?
Portable versions of Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, etc
Most recent BIOSes can already boot from USB. If yours doesn't, then yes, you probably would have use a CD or floppy bootloader.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Whoops... nevermind. It seems that if you connect through a proxy server that intercepts the error and sends you a "no such domain" type error page, Firefox is tricked to believing the address is valid and will not perform a Google search.
Must be a slow news day. I've been using the standard builds of both Firefox and Thunderbird on a portable USB drive since 0.1. All the Portable Firefox project does is to optimise builds for this (e.g.: low disk usage). Anyway, the portable Firefox project has been around since June and has been mentioned on /. before.
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
rsync would do it, but Unison will do it better. Like rsync, it can run over SSH and will only copy changed files. Unlike rsync, it will get you two-way synchronization, so you can change one file on one end and another file on the ohter end, and both locations will up updated with the changes. It's also available for *nix, OS X, and Windows, and can sync files across all platforms.
Which reminds me, I haven't synced up my laptop yet today...
I like my women like my coffee... pale and bitter.
I've considered switching, but my flatbed scanner is vital to the work I do on my home computer, and SANE lists it as unsupported.
* begin windows hardware rant *
Funny you mention that. I have the opposite problem. My dad has collected a bunch of older equipment. A year old scanner, an older style webcam, and one of the first PCI audio boards.
NONE of them work properly with windows anymore. The scanner does not register as a scanner to anything except the only application that came with it. Not a single program can use the acquire function. The webcam -- the drivers work, but apparently they have some kind of a bug, since the camera produces a much better image quality in linux. The audio board does not have a working microphone or sound out in XP or 2000. He has to change them to get them to work again. THIS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU. This happens much slower in open source since it takes only one interested person with skill to continue the work, and if it there is not enough interest, one can be generated for a price of a beer (for a small enough update). A company can not be persuaded, since it does not care about you, and the only thing it will gain is a lost sale because you would upgrade to a new device.
I would have never thought I would say this in this stage of linux development, but "Windows hardware support sucks totally" to the point where if something is not Windows (your version here, including language specific stuff -- had a device that came with english only drivers, and another language version of windows did not accept it) certified, it can be assumed not to work.
So my advice to you. If the scanner is the only reason you are on windows -- it is not a good enough reason. You will probably end up upgrading your scanner at the next version of windows, unless microsoft is kind enough to get a generic driver for it out. In which case you will lose some kind of an option that the original driver had. Like maybe 600dpi support because the generic driver is not aware of this feature on your version.
The only good thing about this is that I get the hardware.
*end hardware and windows rant *
CartoonNetwork.com's Codename: Kids Next Door game to work
Not a good enough reason. There is no need to couple that with the browser. Either produce a standalone program, or allow something that is actually sandboxed. One can argue that an activex is just like a standalone, but I will disagree if only due to layman's understanding of how software works.
Most of the people you call "masochists" can't afford a one-seat license for Microsoft Visual Studio.
That was a sideways question. They are masochists not because they are using MS Internet Update Explorer for updating the machine, but because they are using the Internet Update Explorer for browsing the net, a thing it does not do well. Luckily there are things actually designed to browse the internet nowdays.
The reason why I mentioned the activex testbox program is not because I wish to avoid IE, but to demonstrate how epsilon its actual involvement is. Actually I think the updater activex uses IE to render some of its interface (via external server), so it can not be run standalone. Furthermore I think that the activex testbox came with the VSS ActiveX developer edition, which IIRC was free.
Summary: Most of the people who use IE, do not do it for the activeX, and those who do are quickly conditioned to answer no. Most things out there use flash or java anyway.
So the answer is a simple one: If I go to an aboriginal island, and show them how to make something they desire using a suboptimal method, they will use that method. No amount of advertisement can ever change their minds. They need to actually be shown a better way. Strangely, the same thing happens, which I call an old fogey syndrome. Basically, people who have used the old method start criticizing the new one. The call everyone whippersnappers, and tell them that real
badness 10000