gEDA-user: gEDA on a 512MB USB flash disk

[Marvin Dickens <marvindickens@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello list,

I've notices a few threads discussing/suggesting a gEDA bootable
distribution. Anyway, here is our senerio:

At work, we upgraded to AMD64's and I am also running two
AMD64's at home. So, I compiled the gEDA suite of tools using
gcc 4.0 on an AMD64 machine.  Then, I installed the suite on a
512MB thumb flash drive (Identical to how Stuarts CD installs
the gEDA suite in the home directory) we purchased for $29.00
at Office Depot. On each machine, there are entries in the .bash.rc 
files that set the path to the thumb drive - The tools, libraries and
my work are stored on the thumb drive.  In fact, all the work I do
including office documents, my calender and even my email
are on the thumb drive. Everything travels with me.

Regardless of the hardware/platform, common sense says to backup.
So, on each machine,  we use cron to execute a script throughout the day
that checks to  see if the thumb drive is mounted - If it is, a backup 
routine
is executed that backs up the thumb drive, encrypts the backup and then
emails the backups to a server (That is backed up daily with tape...).

This is the first portable solution that we have found that isn't 
inherently
flawed (At least, for us...) or a pain to use. FWIW, it seems to me that a
bootable linux distro with the gEDA tools over engineers the problem
of portability and, in fact, creates more real world usability issues 
than it
solves - Sure, it's a great way to introduce gEDA tools to people at 
linux or
EDA user groups, but I would not want to use such an animal for real work.
I prefer a more universal solution such as the one I have described.

In the future, when technology produces reliable, dirt cheap thumb drives
that offer 10 gigs (Minimum...) of really fast storage I'll consider a 
truely portable
distribution solution. But, until then, this $29.00 solution will do.


Best regards

Marvin