Martin, I like you enthusiasm. I am planning to distribute a usb based Ubuntu distro to Leeds Met University with an Oracle XE installation on as the admin there don't trust the students to have full admin rights themselves. I shall mention your speed thoughts and report back, it is obviously not as cost effective as a standard usb though I'm sure you'll agree? Perhaps one for the future on mass scale. Live cd's still rule the waves I'm afraid. Dave <div class="gmail_quote">On Jun 13, 2011 9:50 PM, "Martin Houston" <<a href="mailto:mhouston@deluxe-tech.co.uk">mhouston@deluxe-tech.co.uk</a>> wrote: > > I have a couple of old Thinkpad T43s that a friend gave to me thinking > that he had killed them with a faulty USB device. > > A bit of googling and a 'deep reset' restored them both to life much to > my friends consternation. > > I offered them him back but was given permission to keep them :) > > Neither laptop had an internal hard disk so they were ideal > experimenting grounds for working with various USB and net booting projects. > > Something I found that works really well is a 2.5" (i.e. bus powered) > USB hard disk. > > Linux installed onto a 250MB one of these is really quite usable, much > more so than a USB memory stick. > > This is a route that you can use to get your friends to try out Linux > you lend to them, without having to go axeing that internal hard disk > incumbent just yet. > > Things will get even more interesting when USB3 ports become common, > especially once motherboards can boot from them! USB3 connected hard > disks are faster even than eSATA and even cheap USB3 memory keys have > performance on the par with old PATA hard disks (but the small extra > advantage of zero seek time!). > > Bootable CDs & DVDs only go so far. Telling newbies that they need to be > patient because of the very slow seek times is not easy. It does not > create a very good impression. > > Peoples first impressions of Windows are not of having to install it > from the media, so why should Linux have that disadvantage of first > impression? > > One of the things we should be doing for others is 'Linux propagation' - > if you have a friend who wants to try Linux ask if they have a spare USB > hard disk (a smallish one would do!) or can risk the less than 50 quid > it costs to buy one. > > We need to build some logical volume manager based system replication > procedures. That 250MB hard disk Linux started life on a memory stick > and using just lvm volume replication and expansion moved onto the USB > disk and then onto the internal hard disk of another laptop. > > Having that complete bootable, golden copy of the OS is good insurance > even if you do move to the convenience and speed of internal disk in the > end. > > USB > > -- > *Deluxe Technology Ltd* > /Linux Consultant/ > <a href="mailto:mhouston@deluxe-tech.co.uk">mhouston@deluxe-tech.co.uk</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:mhouston@deluxe-tech.co.uk">mhouston@deluxe-tech.co.uk</a>> > <a href="http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk">http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk</a> > Mob: 07970 850961 > > -- > <a href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</a> > <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk</a> > <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/</a> </div>