at http://portableapps.com/ you get all these applications which everyone here is looking for and the ability to import your outlook contacts and more. And when I added everything and imported the outlook contact s 289mb. If they can have all these apps so small running from a thumb drive for windows, why can't we do this for linux on the n800! The website indicates this will be available for linux soon (under operating section)! They even have MAC os available. Imagine spreadsheets, word processors, browser, calendar, contacts, instant messaging. Now this is a project that would be great if you could put these apps on your memory card and have it operate! ANy advanced users opinion on making this work!

We allready have them
gnumeric, abiwor or scite, GAIM, mozilla or opera, DATES, and even more...

So I am not sure why we "need" those mention...

Portable APPS run from the memory... for me kind of useless.. Why? if you get a sudden crash or baterry loss kiss your data good bye...

And by the way thats a very old site at least 4yrs old.... and they had the "Coming for Linux Soon" since... Never seen nothing...

Sorry to dampen your enthusiasm, but as far as I can tell all they're doing is taking applications that already run on a certain platform (windows, mac), trimming some of the excess size, and hacking them up a little to run off a usb stick. Also, for a lot of the apps mentioned there are already good alternatives available for the n800/770.

Also, you might get more replies if you use a title for your thread that includes less CAPS and more information about what you're going to say in the post.

-John X

He was just really really excited... I see why... for some people this could be amazing.

I found portable Abiword quite useful a while back. I had Abiword running on my 770, but no way to print documents. With portable Abiword on a USB stick in my pocket, I could at least indirectly print documents (by mailing them to my Google account and printing them off any pc that had a USB port and internet access.

It was fun while it lasted.

I keep a memory stick with the portableapps suite on it for troubleshooting, opening OOo documents on machines that don't have it (or any office suite) installed, and various other purposes. I really like the apps, and the concept and it's much nicer in my opinion that the "U3" system that comes on some memory sticks these days. As SeRi@lDiE said, they've been promising a Linux version forever, and it hasn't happened - but then again, why? How many of us need to sit down at a Linux box that doesn't have our favorite open source app installed? It's usually there, or we don't have occasion to use multiple Linux machines.

Also, a more fundamental problem with this idea: Architecture differences. You can't just take a "Linux binary" that's made for a full PC and have it run on an n800, you have to port it to the n800 GUI, processor, and system libraries first. Then, assuming that's successful, you can install and run it, but it takes a lot of work.

Here's an alternative, though, if you want multiple "personalities" for your N800. Use the Boot from MMC guide on the Maemo wiki, set up one card the way you want, make sure it boots, then reflash the device, set up apps you want, copy it to another card, etc. Then, if you need your "Office apps" only, boot from that card, if you need a penetration testing rig, boot from a different card. But, this whole process begs the question: Why not just install it on the n800 in the first place?

I was just really excited. I saw so many nice apps working and in such a small amount of memory. I agree we have gnumeric and abiword, but we don't have a simple and a bug free way to sync all of our outlook contacts. And the open office portable suite seemed more than most people would need. The suite of apps seemed nice and it appears more are arriving. I didn't realize this was an old concept.

I use the n800 for internet access portability. But I find myself wishing to use it more and more due to the incredible screen. When skype finally gets working on the n800 it will make my life easier.

There is no 1 device for everything, even though I find myself wishing for it. Cell phones are getting better at doing almost everything but the screen resolution is not nearly as nice as the n800. So I carry a camera for photo's, a cell phone for calling and the n800 in my travels so I don't need to lug and be bothered in airport security when traveling.

The n800 I can also leave in my vehicle while its a lot easier to hide than a lap top, although almost the cost of one (recent acer laptops 512 and vista at $399 after rebates).

This website has presented a lot of information and I thank the members for support and continued support for an amazing piece of hardware with a lot of potential. I hope more and more useful stable apps appear so this device does not drift away like the "neXT" computer.