Putting Linux on a USB Drive To Use on another Computer
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Putting Linux on a USB Drive To Use on another Computer
I use the Internet at the library at times, and can't download anything to save.
Is there a way to put Linux on a USB drive, so I could use Linux at the library, and use my own web browser?
Sure you could, but that would mean you had to boot the computer from your USB stick so it ran the Linux instead of whatever (Windows?) they offer you there. That faces two big problems:
1) Very probably (at least if they've given this a thought) you cannot boot your own operating system off a cd/external hd/usb stick/other media; if you could, it meant you could do all sorts of naughty things. So probably booting off anything else than the computer's own harddisk is disabled, and you can't change that.
2) Even if you could boot, you probably couldn't get anywhere further than that machine; the network is most probably secured, and requires some sort of a login (to a domain if I'm right) to access the internet, for example. The operating system that runs there normally is configured to do this automatically, but your fancy Linux probably doesn't. And I guess they don't tell you how to connect your own operating system to their network I wouldn't.
There is a reason why they don't want you to download things there. It's a public pc, so you just have to live by their rules; if you need to download something so badly, get a laptop (you can get Asus Eee Pc laptops for less than 150€ today) and either connect it wirelessly (or by wire if you can) to the internet or trough your mobile phone or something. Or just wait until you get home.
Sure you could, but that would mean you had to boot the computer from your USB stick so it ran the Linux instead of whatever (Windows?) they offer you there. That faces two big problems:
1) Very probably (at least if they've given this a thought) you cannot boot your own operating system off a cd/external hd/usb stick/other media; if you could, it meant you could do all sorts of naughty things. So probably booting off anything else than the computer's own harddisk is disabled, and you can't change that.
2) Even if you could boot, you probably couldn't get anywhere further than that machine; the network is most probably secured, and requires some sort of a login (to a domain if I'm right) to access the internet, for example. The operating system that runs there normally is configured to do this automatically, but your fancy Linux probably doesn't. And I guess they don't tell you how to connect your own operating system to their network I wouldn't.
There is a reason why they don't want you to download things there. It's a public pc, so you just have to live by their rules; if you need to download something so badly, get a laptop (you can get Asus Eee Pc laptops for less than 150€ today) and either connect it wirelessly (or by wire if you can) to the internet or trough your mobile phone or something. Or just wait until you get home.
yep you are right, at our college you need an user account to log in to the PC and then you can access the net. Don't think i could access the net without an account, that means i wouldn't be able to log into my account if i was on linux, that also means i wouldn't be able to use the net cause i am not logged into the account.
People at the library dont want their systems to be used except for viewing articles on the web. They don't want any members wasting their bandwidth by downloading mp3s and nasty viruses.
If you wish to use the library for scholarly work, then u can just email whatever it is u find to your email account. e.g. If your library has subscription to a paid journal service, you may download the PDF and mail it as an attachment to your email id.
Another thing that I have always used at the library on base (before I got my permanent housing/internet) is I would put portable apps on my thumbdrive. This would include firefox with all my normal extensions/theme. Pidgin, and a host of other programs (I have VLC and now can watch all my AVI's at work). Now some of these may not work due to firewall restrictions (pidgin). And depending on how their firewall is setup may still prevent you from downloading certain files. This is at least a route to kinda "stick it to the man" (although I have no idea who the man is... just a funny line ), and allow you to use the software you want to use.
You possibly could use the external drive as a download storage. Our library allows us to download but not burn any cd/dvd though the PCs have the devices. These unit were donated by BG's foundation so that what was available at the time.
Does your library allow you too use a USB flash? If so then you should not have a problem.
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