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In search of ... guidance on Zorin as portable

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barney:
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I think he also wants to snoop on his employees...

He might want to check up on what the legal ramifications are for that where he operates. Where I am it's a semi-gray area that poses significant legal risks for the employer. Better suggest he check with an attorney as to exactly what's allowed in his jurisdiction. One thing that does seem to be an almost universal constant is you're not allowed to monitor employees secretly. Advance and ongoing notice has to be given. And very often some form of consent needs to be gotten back from the employees as well. So: Danger Will Robinson!!!

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...but that's neither here nor there  undecided Wink.

Um...yeah...well...it is for me.  smiley

--- End quote ---

That statement is unsupported supposition on my part, hence the wink.  As you say, that is a very grey area ... what is legally supported in one (1) situation may not be in the next.  Add to that the equally grey area of personal liability, and it can become a real mess.

As for the rest of your comment, there is remarkably little with which I'd have exception, and most of it is what I've already communicated to Jim, albeit in somewhat more forceful language  ;D.  I suspect (more supposition on my part), from comments he made during our discussion, that this is as much politics as it is practicality.  In some respects, I think he wants to see failures, ammunition for I told you so, perhaps leverage to minimize his partners' influence.  As I said, I think his solution is overly complex, but it's his solution.  He's already using Libre Office so that should be a non-issue.  His financial software is also open source, with versions for *nix, Win, & Mac - another probable non-issue.  His inventory and scheduling systems are Win-specific, but tested under Wine.  They don't normally see that much activity on a daily basis.  We did discuss several of the probable failure points, but in the end, it is his decision.

However, I did commit to helping him with some aspects, and I intend to keep my word regardless what his agenda might be.  That commitment is important to me, on both a personal and a professional level.

40hz:
However, I did commit to helping him with some aspects, and I intend to keep my word regardless what his agenda might be.  That commitment is important to me, on both a personal and a professional level.
-barney (September 01, 2012, 01:26 PM)
--- End quote ---

Understood. Word is bond. I can relate.

I'd suggest he go with a Debian-based distro using MATE or Gnome2 for the desktop manager as a general rule of thumb. If the USB keys are going to be assigned to specific machines he could always just do a regular install from a CD/DVD onto the USB key itself and then boot from that. Far easier than mucking around and remastering a live CD

To put a live distro onto a bootable USB key use UNetbootin. Period. Unless the specific distro has it's own UBB tool. It's a simple process. Just follow the guides.

For a distro targeted at Windows users I'd suggest Linux Mint. It's not a Win lookalike, nor is it intended to be. But it's what I give to my Windows users who are moving over to Linux. So far it hasn't caused much in the way of culture shock. Most people I've dropped it on take to it pretty quickly and often end up liking it.

I'd suggest looking at Linux Mint 13 (Maya) for openers and suggest trying the MATE version first. Also use the 64-bit version if you have a 64-bit chip. Mint Maya is based on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) and uses most of their core and supplemental repositories. So most of what goes for Ubuntu will go for Mint. Think of it as Ubuntu sans that Fisher-Price looking Unity desktop that Canonical keeps trying to convince everybody is the way to go.

Here's what it looks like with the start menu popped up:

In search of ... guidance on Zorin as portable

No big deal right? You open a menu and click on what you want to run. Home folder is the same as MyDocuments. Just like Windows up to Win7.

Let me know how you make out. :) :Thmbsup:

barney:
To put a live distro onto a bootable USB key use UNetbootin. Period. Unless the specific distro has it's own UBB tool. It's a simple process. Just follow the guides.
-40hz (September 01, 2012, 04:02 PM)
--- End quote ---

Bingo :Thmbsup:!  That's what I was lookin' for.  Well, that and the distro.  I'd heard rumours about Zorin, but nothing confirmed.  I'd also seen implications that it could run Win software, but guess that's not the case.  I'll definitely try the Mint/MATE combo.  Something that has been proven to work is way preferable to theory  :P.

<sidebar>
Two (2) of the machines cannot accommodate discs.  One (1) of them is physically jammed - user tried to stack music discs  :o.  The other, well ... you've heard the old joke about the cup holder of course.  It really does happen in real life ;):  young lady thought the cup holder would support a sixty-four (64) ounce Slurpee (grape, I think).  Had to replace the keyboard, 'cause the dishwasher trick didn't work, and she had to go home to change clothes (white dress)  :P :P :P.
</sidebar>

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