Best USB Linux distros

I have used almost all Linux distros on the market! I liked some of them, hated the rest of them. Majority of users who still do not use Linux, they actually hesitate to install Linux on their computers' hard disks so that it does not interere with Windows.

So, I reckon a good way to start Linux is to try it without touching your existing Windows hard disks.
Of course, you can run a lot of Linux distros directly from live CD/DVD. But not only this is slower but also you often don't get any option to save your settings.

Fortunately, a lot of Linux distros offer the facility to create live bootable USB disk! You can simply boot from your USB disk [as long as your PC BIOS supports that] and then you will work like normal. You can even save your files on USB disk.

One thing you must remember though, Linux uses a different file system known as ext2 or ext3 compared to NTFS (and FAT) for Windows. Linux can read (but may not write) your Windows disks but not vice versa (without using special software)!

The new Linux users mostly confused by so many distros available. Which one is best?

First of all, you must select a distro which supports your hardwire fully. A lot of Linux distros don't support many WiFi cards and so if you use them, you need to connect to internet via ethernet cable only!

Here is a list of what I found about most popular distros.

Ubuntu - The version 8 onwards offers you to create a USB disk once you have booted with live CD.
Ubuntu is most popular distro now and it has excellent user community. However, its only problems are poor hardware support (especially non Intel based WiFi cards) and rather slow startup time.

Open SuSE - A very competent distro. Very good hardware recognition. However, I couldn't make it work from USB following guidelines.

Fedora (formerly Redhat Linux) - My personal favorite. It's hardware recognition is very good and it's lightening fast! My Windows Vista boots up from hard disk in 45 seconds. Fedora 10 boots up from USB in same time!
It is also easy to install new applications (eg. Open Office) in Fedora.

Mandriva - Another very good distro. Lots of built in apps. You can run from USB disk. But it too didn't like my WiFi card.

Knoppix - Its live DVD comes with most number of built in applications. But I was unsuccessful running Knoppix 6 from USB disk. Even if you run it from live DVD, you can still save your settings (persistent storage) in USB disk.

Puppy Linux - a small frill free Linux. At one time in past it was my favorite distro. But now, there are better alternatives available. A version of puppy comes with Open Office as well.

Damn Small Linux - Just 50 MB in size. But too small for modern day computing.

gOS - Based on Ubuntu, comes with lots of Google gadgets. Nothing special though.

Other distros - Not used yet.

Remember, if you Windows computer is screwed, you can still access most of your files if you boot up your computer with Linux.

The site www.pendrivelinux.com has list of USB Linux versions with step by step guide of how to create them.

Feel free to try all of them and see what you like. My personal suggestion will be - Ubuntu, Fedora and SuSE though as they offer best balance between features and usability.

In Linux world, you often hear the terms like Gnome and KDE. These are just two different GUIs for desktop (like Start menu/taskbar in Windows). You will also come accross as Debian and RPM packages. This is just a way of distributing applications in Linux. Some distros are Debian based (eg. Ubuntu) and some are RPM based (eg Fedora).

How my mobile phone works like iPod Nano?

I thought of buying an iPod Nano. But after I examined iPod’s features, I discovered that my Nokia 6300 mobile can do almost everything an iPod Nano does!

The iPod Nano’s display size and resolution is exactly same as that of my Nokia 6300’s

My Nokia can play MP3 directly and 3GP video files. I can convert any MPEG, WMV, MOV, AVI, FLV (You Tube’s) etc. video files using loads of free converter available on internet.

Feature	iPod Nano	Nokia 6300
Screen	320x240 [4 cm x3 cm]	320x240 [4 cm x3 cm]
Music Playback	AAC	MP3, WMA
Video Playback	MOV	3GP
Interface	Via iTune only	As USB disk via cable or Bluetooth
Portrait/Landscape mode	Possible by tilting iPod	Possible via buttons
Built in Accelerometer	Yes	No (but not an issue)
Adding extra application	Only Apple’s application will work	Any Java (jar) file will work in the phone
Replacing battery	You need soldering tool to replace battery	Just take out the old one and put new battery inside
Extended memory	No way to put additional memory in iPod Nano	You can add micro SD card of size up to 2 GB
Built in speaker	None – you listen via microphone plugged into your ears only	Yes and of good quality sound
Built in camera	No	Yes – 2 mega pixels
Built in radio	No	Yes
Can be used as phone?	No	Yes (it is a phone!)
Price (mid 2009)	£100	£70

If you are thinking of buying an iPod (Nano or Classic), my advise will be hold on. There is a high possibility that your current mobile phone has all the facilities of an iPod. Although I do understand that majority of people buy iPod just because everyone else have it and it looks cool.

Nokia 6300 is quite an old model. But even that phone can compete with iPod. So, I am sure newer mobile phones even have more capabilities than an iPod.

Now I might have saved you few $£€ etc

Cost of databases

Money moves the world!

Ultimately your choice of database will depend on cost benefit analysis. The vendors intentionally make pricing model very complex (you might need help of your lawyer to understand it – seriously).

Customers rarely pay list price of software nowadays. So, this chapter is to give you some ballpark figures only as guide.

Since, most vendors are USA based, prices are given in $.

Vendor	Product	$ per CPU	$ per user	Support per year $
Oracle	11g Enterprise	40,000	800	10,000
Oracle	11g Standard	17,000	350	4,000
Microsoft	SQL Server 2008 Enterprise	25,000	?	?
Microsoft	SQL Server 2008 Standard	6,000	?	?
Sybase	IQ 12	70,000	?	15,000
Sybase	ASE 15 Enterprise	70,000	?	15,000
IBM	DB2 9.5	35,000	?	7,500
MySQL	Enterprise Platinum	Free to install	N/A	3,000 per server support

As you can see yourself, SQL Server is cheapest and serves requirement of small to medium organizations very well. Oracle is cheap compared to its features against other databases like Sybase. That’s why Oracle is most popular among large organizations.

Although I mentioned earlier that Sybase IQ, being column based database, is better for large data warehouses, but it doesn’t make sense to justify its cost unless your DWH database size in terabyte level.