A Virtual Computer in Your Pocket
My USB drive houses pretty much everything that I use on a regular basis as far as data and applications. The one thing that it does not house is my operating system. Now, I know that there are several different ways that I could get an operating system onto my USB drive, including BartPE and Linux bootable USB drives. But, what if I want to have multiple operating systems available to me and I do not want to have to shut down, swap or reconfigure USB drives offline and then reboot? What then?
This is where Moka5 comes in. Moka5 has created a virtual computer engine based on VMWare player. The engine can install on your Windows system or even on a USB drive. According to the Moka5 website, the engine is used to…
…launch, create, and share LivePCs™ on Windows XP machines. The moka5 Engine will stream and prefetch LivePCs™ so they can be shared efficiently. It automatically updates the LivePCs™ as the maintainers make changes, ensuring that you stay current. You can install it on a USB flash drive, USB hard disk, iPod, or a desktop computer.
What is a LivePC, you ask? Moka5 says:
moka5 LivePCs™ contain everything needed to run a virtual computer — an operating system and a set of applications. You can use LivePCs™ on your desktop, or you can take them with you on a portable USB drive. You can create and share your own LivePCs™, or use the public LivePCs™ created by others in our LivePC Library™
So, essentially, these virtual computers reside in either online or offline mode. In offline mode, the LivePC is located on your local drive (including USB drive). All user files are stored outside the virtual computer and the whole system runs from your system.
In online mode, the LivePC is initially streamed from a web server and then cached locally. Whenever the maintainer of the LivePC updates the code for the LivePC, the updates are automatically sent out to all users of that LivePC.
There is also a bare metal version of the LivePC Engine which installs directly on hardware without the need of a host operating system. This helps to increase the speed of the systems and also help with the security of the systems. This version, unfortunately, is not available for a USB drive.
Useful Links
- Moka5 website - http://www.moka5.com/
- Live PC Information - http://www.moka5.com/products/features.html
- Moka5 Engine Information - http://www.moka5.com/products/getstarted.html
- Moka5 Engine, Bare Metal Edition Information - http://www.moka5.com/products/baremetal.html
- LivePC Library - http://www.moka5.com/livepc
- LiveCD Library - http://www.moka5.com/livecd
- Forum - http://www.moka5.com/forum
- Blog - http://www.moka5.com/blog
- Documentation - http://www.moka5.com/docs/index.html
4 Responses to “A Virtual Computer in Your Pocket”
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University Update - Linux - A Virtual Computer in Your Pocket Says:
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:54 am[…] Link to Article linux A Virtual Computer in Your Pocket » Posted at Daily Cup of Tech on […]
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Hazclan13 Says:
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:47 pmHey very cool software, although now its downloading 7 OS’s
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T.J. Purtell Says:
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:20 pmThe Baremetal version does work from a USB drive. You can install it on one, which makes the USB drive bootable. Then you reboot the computer off the USB drive.
Sometimes BIOSes don’t do this very well. A boot helper CD is available from their support. It is a credit card CD sized image that lets you run the Baremetal LivePC Engine using the USB drive as your ‘cache’.
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jambarama Says:
August 9th, 2007 at 6:25 pmThis seems pretty cool, but have you actually used it? I mean, I’m just curious what it is like from a usage perspective. VMWare is easy enough, by adding a layer of complexity, is it usable?
