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In response to an email that I recieved from Christophe and to provide more information about the project; The installation scripts that I am proposing would be used to install Knoppix onto a USB hard drive as I have described. The benefits are many. The application of this type of Knoppix+Xen installation is as a base environment for IT workers. Unlike traditional operating systems, this system could be customized and upgraded to the users content and potentially maintained forever. Upgrading the hardware is then as simple as plugging into the new computer. Upgrading the software, and even the kernel, is managed through apt. If the hard drive runs low on space the files are simply moved to a greater capacity disk with common backup tools. Although proprietary operating systems may always lead the way with multimedia entertainment applications, I believe that this type of OS will soon be used by virtually everyone when they are doing serious work involving email, personal data, shopping, information production, valued processing, business, backup, and security. Every computer will probably have an installed OS for non-critical functions or fault tolerant participation in a cluster; every user will have a bootable data construct that can utilize any available hardware, physical or virtual. While this data construct should boot from an external hard drive, I believe the same construct would boot across a network as well. The addition of Xen and guest operating systems opens up the entire world of software to the user, while maintaining a stable fallback environment. Virtualization has benefits for software developers and end users alike because all users create data. To further elaborate on virtualization; It will be possible to run most applications in an customized operating system of the users or the developers choosing. This gives users a safe and slow migration path from one environment to another. I would like to experiment with a variety of OSes as test servers and application appliances. I am also interested in the possibility of using GoboLinux as my primary environment. It will be possible to boot whatever OS is installed on the host computers internal data store. This is a safe way to run entertainment and business applications on the same system. The portable OS will also be able to capture user data on the host system such as pictures, music, videos, and saved game files; in so doing, users may finally have a reliable roaming profile for all types of data. If NTFS or FAT64 support is reliable in Knoppix the installer should also make an NTFS or FAT partition on the disk. While the security of a users data construct is at risk if the disk is attached to an operating untrusted system, a certain amount of risk may be acceptable where monitoring software is properly configured, disk encryption is in place, and sensible backup policies are being followed. Notwithstanding those measures, the NTFS/FAT partition for publicly accessible data is optional and the same thing can be accomplished with a second external storage device. The same file management and mirroring software would be used in either case. If all of the data on the bootable disk is private then there would never be a reason to plug the external device into an operating system that is executing untrusted software. [If anyone would like to make some USB cables with on/off switches I would be happy to get a cut of the profits (I'm joking, but I would consider taking an interesting job if someone is hiring.).] So, in summary, there are many applications for Knoppixed+Xen installed to an external device with persistence and portability as I have described at http://lists.debian.org/debian-knoppix/2012/01/msg00000.html . Among the benefits are elegant data management and software upgrades, broader compatibility in data interfacing, improved system stability, and improved security. Thank you, Jesse |