Do PortableApps Hinder the Adoption of Linux (Mac OS)?

In the mid 1990's, I roomed with someone who worked for a large internet backbone corporation. Through my association with him, I was exposed to a lot of interesting computer tech. Most notably, he'd installed a distribution of Linux on his PC at a time when the only other operating systems I'd ever been exposed to were the ubiquitous OS authored by the Evil Empire, OS/2 by IBM, and UNIX proper (in the dial-up mainframe environment). I don't recall which distribution of Linux it was (if indeed I ever knew), but I was very intrigued by the X-windows GUI. At the time, it was the only alternative, windowed OS that I'd ever seen running on a PC other than OS/2.


Over the years (mostly well into the 2000's), I've waded ankle deep into offerings from the Open Source community, such as Mozilla Firefox, and Sun Microsystem's Open Office, during which time I didn't think much about Linux. I found these applications fully featured and functional, but more importantly, they were immediately familiar enough to facilitate migration from their ubiquitous competition. It was a good strategy for the Open Source community to make these applications available to people dependent on the Evil Empire OS, and not just for Linux. What better way to let large numbers of people have a taste of the fruits of the collaborative effort that is Open Source? Once I tasted the flesh of these Open Source applications, I never turned back to their costly commercial predecessors.


These first few tastes of freedom, forays out from under the thumb of the Empire, re-inspired me to seek out other Rebel Bases from which to fight it. I was pleased to discover alternatives to most (if not quite all) of the applications I used on a daily basis, offered through outlets such as SourceForge. The very nature of this Rebellion lead me to begin thinking about the Linux OS again. The desire to try Linux as a means to wean myself from my dependency was strong, but stories of difficult and tedious installations, missing or nonexistent device drivers, data incompatibility with the prevalent software applications and a lack of software development always stopped me dead in my tracks.


Then a miracle occurred. Mark Shuttleworth, the self made South African born millionaire, visionary behind the digital certificates and internet security which underlie Verisign, and more recently of International Space Station Tourist fame, embarked upon a project to introduce a low-cost (free), easy to obtain, easy to use computer operating system and software, to the people of his home continent of Africa. Thus was born Ubuntu (which in the Bantu languages of South Africa is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other). For the first time, there was a distribution of the Linux operating system that was both user friendly to install and practical to use. Although I was a tech geek since the first time I saw a Commodore PET computer in the school library of my middle school, it was incumbent upon a very close friend of mine to steer me toward Ubuntu.


I lapped up this new found Ubuntu Linux offering like a starving LOLcat does cheeseburgers. (I can haz Linux?) The interface was both familiar, yet satisfyingly un-Evil Empire-like. Unless by default, due to having grown up alongside the home computer and internet revolutions, I'm no IT tech historian. At the time I became acquainted with Ubuntu, it had already incorporated other Open Source offerings, such as Mozilla Firefox and Sun Microsystem's Open Office, into its fabric. Thus, right from the first boot of the Live CD, the Ubuntu experience was both gratifyingly simple, and familiar.


So why have I never installed Ubuntu on a computer that I use every day? That question is the meat of this blog post nut.


For me, the answer may not be obvious. It wasn't because I couldn't find alternative applications to replace the common commercial fare. It wasn't because device drivers in Ubuntu were lacking. Indeed, even while running Ubuntu from a Live CD, I can install a printer on the LAN network at work in the blink of an eye, where it requires an afternoon, proprietary printer software (much of it bloatware), and much pulling of hair, to do the same in the prevalent OS. It wasn't even the fact that the online role playing game I play at home can't be installed on an Ubuntu machine. I can't (in good conscience) play my game while I'm at work anyway. So what's the rub?


It leads back to the Open Source Community itself. Specifically, to the PortableApps concept. In 2006, that same close friend I mentioned earlier, introduced me for the first time to the PortableApps versions of Firefox and Open Office. In order to explain the significance of this, you have to understand what makes the PortableApp concept so very powerful. 'Portable' means just that. You can take it with you. It isn't installed and threaded into the OS. You can install a PortableApp on a flash drive, and when you remove the drive from the computer, nothing is left behind; no application, no drivers, no data. It ALL goes with the flash drive, comfortably residing in your pocket, purse, briefcase, or murse, until you plug the drive back into your computer, or any other computer for that matter!


The power of this method of doing business is profound in several ways. You don't ever have to install any programs on the potentially, multiple computers you use in your daily life. You can go down to the library with your flash drive, plug it in, and Voilà! All your applications are at your fingertips, ready to use, without modification for use on the particular computer you're using. If that isn't benefit enough, there's more. You'll never have to worry about erasing your bookmarks or browsing history after surfing the internet if you're using Firefox Portable. All of your private, personally identifying (or incriminating?) information is stored safely on the flash drive. It never finds it's way onto the hard drive of the computer you're using. So when you unplug the flash drive from the computer, it's as if you were never there. So with all of this new power, how does the PortableApps concept, born of the Open Source movement to free people from the Evil Empire, hinder migration over to Linux (or even Mac OS)?


It's a Catch-22 really. We who desire the power to thwart the Empire, have turned to Open Source applications to free ourselves from our shackles. In so doing, many of us have embraced the incredible power (Force, if you will) of the PortableApp concept to free us from our own computers as well! Now we no longer have to rely on multiple installations of the same exact software to migrate physically from one location to another, even if we don't own a laptop, notebook or netbook computer! We also no longer have to be (overly) concerned with protecting our private information and data from identity thieves, nosy children, ex-girlfriends or boyfriends, or even the occasional domestic servant. So with all of this power, we adopters of the PortableApp concept, have painted ourselves into a corner. PortableApps have ONLY been developed for the predominant Evil OS!


That's right. The Open Source Community has overlooked it alternative own! You can't take that same flash drive, on which you've stored all of your PortableApps (and data), and plug it into a Apple Mac. It won't work. Likewise, it won't work in the Ubuntu (or any other Linux) environment! What's worse, PortableApps haven't been ported to Linux, or Mac OS. So you can't even migrate to a version that WILL work on these alternative operating systems! Sure, there are versions of these Open Source programs that can be installed on Ubuntu or Mac OS, but they aren't portable. They are threaded into the computer, just like their counterparts in the Empire.


So we've been presented with a difficult quandary. In order to preserve our new found power, we alternative loving users of Open Source PortableApps have to give up the power of portability, to fully wean ourselves from Evil. Or, we must once again chain ourselves to the very machines that we long to escape, by continuing to run our Rebel software on computers that operate on the Evil OS! The blame for this mess lies squarely with the Open Source Movement. They have done their best to free us, but in their zeal for freedom, they have been blinded by their devotion to the alternatives. The world will never be free of Evil. Sometimes we'll be forced to use a machine that does the bidding of the Emperor, and we'll do so comfortable in the knowledge that we have a Rebel connection, but we will always be dependent on the existence of Evil until we can deliver the power of portability to our Rebel hardware.