Virtual OS on Flash Drive?!

[Zdroyd]

I will get right to the point:
Does anyone know a good FREE virtual OS program that I can put on and run off of my flash drive?

In other words I want to be able to plug my drive in and make a window popup that has another desktop within it.

I was also wondering if anyone knows any Virtual OS's for the Mac? So I can run Windows off my flash drive on a Mac?

Please tell me what is the best FREE Virtual OS program... Thanks ahead of time.

 

[Zangetsu]

you can use linux and its free

 

[Spartan Erik]

DamnSmallLinux runs on a flash drive I believe

 

[alz4445]

Alternatively.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

 

[Zangetsu]

he wants an OS that can be run from a USB thumb drive Virtualbox requires an OS to run

 

[osaeed2003]

i get windows xp to run from sandisk 2gb flash drive. the xp is about 500mb in size

 

[Twinkie]

I use drive partition manager 2005. Expensive, but it is the best.

~Twinkie

 

[psgalaxy91]

I beleive there is something called "Mac-on-a-Stick", I remember reading about it somewhere but I don't remember anything...

 

[IonCannon218]

I recently installed BackTrack3 on my usb and it seem to be running fine.
I installed it yesterday so I'll let you know what I really think later.

 

[Aota_65]

FlyaKiteOSX is a great Mac OS X EMU that you can install as a program and your computer will look like a Mac OS which is soo much better than Vista with all of it's widgets.....

 

[nterror]

BackTrack has a bunch of Wireless security tools. I think that would be counted as wasted space if he isn't looking for those kind of apps on a flash drive.

I will also suggest Linux (its small, lightweight, feature rich, highly customizable being open source, etc.)

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
This has its own distro as well as How-To for other distros.

Other distributions include: Damn Small Linux (DSL), Puppy Linux and Knoppix.

 

[steronius]

agreed, Sun's VirtualBox.com !!!

also, microsoft has Virtual PC 2007; however i do not know if it has Mac binaries.

You can store your virtual drive on either the flash drive or the harddrive, i suggest the harddrive for speed. However, if you want it portable, realize that the software will need installation on each new host you use -- and thus you will have to add settings for your virtual computer on each host also.

Something I have NOT yet tested, is microsoft's Hyper-V server.
http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/default.mspx

Apparently it's a standalone product (OS) for virtual computers.

Maybe it can be installed to USB drive, then boot from USB drive. ???

 

[louisfluff]

I found how to run windows 2 or 3.1 using dos box portable. This is not an os as it is run within an emulator. IT is nifty to play old windows or dos games on. Mac on a stick also works.

 

[Zdroyd]

Sorry I forgot I made this topic... LOL

... Some of you seem to know what I want...

A year ago my OLD IT teacher plugged his flash drive into a computer, he clicked an exe and vu-la! A window popped on that had a desktop with in it...

^^^ That is what I want to do...

As for which OS... I do not really care... (Windows, Mac, or Linux) As long as it can be ran off a PC or a Mac...

 

[idontknow95129]

Sorry I forgot I made this topic... LOL

... Some of you seem to know what I want...

A year ago my OLD IT teacher plugged his flash drive into a computer, he clicked an exe and vu-la! A window popped on that had a desktop with in it...

^^^ That is what I want to do...

As for which OS... I do not really care... (Windows, Mac, or Linux) As long as it can be ran off a PC or a Mac...

Hah, guess I'm not alone. I also want to do this, but I don't want to buy VMWare. =(.

 

[Zdroyd]

I have looked into OSs and found: Ubuntu, It says that you can put it on a flash drive...

Does anyone else use Ubuntu? I want to know if it is as good as it seems, and if I can put it on my Flash Drive.

 

[guardianrobotics]

I've used Ubuntu on my computer as the OS and I liked it.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
They've got instructions there for putting Ubuntu onto a flash drive.
Just look in the bar on the left-hand side. There's a few different options.

*Edit*
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/06/11/qemu-ubuntu-804-with-a-shared-folder/

Is this something like what you want?

 

[louisfluff]

Besides what I mentioned in my previous post, I have also used D. Small Linux embedded version. It is nice. The only problem is that for me it was slow and hard to add new software to.

For the link mentioned, will it work with fat32?

 

[diabolo]

portableapps.com

you can put mac 7 on your flash drive, but mac 7 looks ugly

 

[Zdroyd]

I think I am going to go with the Pen Drive idea....

I might also put Ubuntu on my laptop... Would work better than Win98 does... LOL

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