What is on Your Mind?

What do you think of the idea of selling flash drives already prepared to boot Puppy Linux on PCs? (I still need to see if I can boot on Macs using online instructions I've found.) I know it's not too hard to prep your own flash drive, even if you have to buy one first, but just think about why this could be marketable.

First of all, advantages of booting from a flash drive include extreme portability for your "computer", having as many "computer" setups as your flash drive can store, non-invasive and (mostly) no-hassle dual-booting, longer memory lifetime compared to live cd, ability to boot on a computer without a cd drive, and ability to run on a computer whose main operating system has crashed or is ruined (or not installed).

Second of all, reasons why Puppy seems to me to be the optimal live usb distro include wide hardware compatibility, ability to run completely in 128MB or less of RAM (making old computers or ones without functioning hard drives usable, and any computer run faster, quieter, and cooler), its completeness yet user-friendliness, and the ease and depth of extensibility and community support (unlike other distros that run RAM-only from a flash drive, and even compares with major distros like Ubuntu).

As to why one might want a flash drive already prepped, there are many variants of Puppy Linux built for different purposes, and many different ways to format flash drives. And puppy drives wouldn't just be for people who are already informed and curious but scared to prep a flash drive themselves. Even though I can prep my own quite easily now, I had trouble at first. These could make great gifts, or save time otherwise spent prepping. Selling Puppy drives could also be a service, where one preps it how the customer wants it.

Maybe I'm just gushing about Puppy Linux on live usb, which I've recently been experimenting with and coincidentally had two genuine needs for already, but I still think this is an interesting idea. What do you think? Would there be a market? Also, SD card+reader vs. plain usb flash drive?

We have been doing exactly that for the last 5 years. In reality, typical end users are not going to delve into something where there is only anecdotal evidence that it will make their lives much easier. Their questions are always the same: Can I use MS Excel? Can I still edit my document and distribute it as MS Word? Can I browse the internet with all my bookmarks?
Even if that flash drive you have given to them is right beside them, it will remain unused for the large majority of recipients. The distro would have to look very much like XP or Win7, and that would be a very basic requirement. To state that their aging laptop will suddenly become blazingly fast after inserting this flash drive is just not good enough of a reason.

Interesting that you have experience with this. Who's "we"? People in the forums, or are you a representative of something?

It's not that an old computer gets a HUGE boost of speed, but one could use modern applications without the kind of slowdown and glitchiness (or incompatibility) one would normally get with a computer with ancient specs and OS. It's also not that Puppy makes live much easier, but it has specific, non-anecdotal features.

Puppy doesn't look like XP, but it is intuitive. Do you disagree that many of its included applications (or downloadable ones) can be easily picked up from, say, Microsoft Office experience?

I work for a company that does a bit of Linux / UNIX advocacy.

I suppose you usually advocate distros that are more suited to enterprise applications? On the one hand, you probably talk a lot to people with IT experience. On the other hand, I would think one average person switching over to Puppy would be much easier than an entire company weighing the costs of switching to Arch or Gentoo or whatever.

Sorry mates,
Though interesting, this is not quite the sort of thread expected here...
I will therefore move the thread to more suitable forum...

Cheers

I wasn't sure where to put this. Thanks.