Hi there, I'm Marcus,
I recently graduated from University of Oxford and over my final year my trusty laptop slowly but surely met its demise. The next step in my life is to begin a 4 year PhD program at Cambridge in Photonic Systems Development, and I haven't got the funds at the moment to buy myself a new laptop. I am therefore turning to portable operating systems as the computing method to get me through the next four years. This blog will talk about my portable computing set-up and experience.
There are three reasons why moving to portable computing is the perfect set-up for me right now.
1. It's cheap
I'm a student with limited income. The only expense for running a portable system is an external hard drive. There's so much free software on the web today that you can find a free, open source program for just about any task. There are even entire operating systems which are free.
2. Today's Technology
In the past running a portable operating system was impractical. The slow speed of reading data over USB meant that booting up an entire operating system from an external hard drive could take as long as 10 minutes or more. Not today.
USB3 can transfer data at 5Gbits/sec, which is the same speed - if not faster - than an IDE or SATA connection inside your computer. This allows it to make full use of an SSD (Solid State Drive), a new type of hard drive which has no moving parts, allowing it to transfer data 6 times faster than a traditional hard drive. Another advantage of a no-moving-parts SSD for a portable operating system is that it is less likely to break if you drop it.
3. Availability of computers
There's no need for me to have my own computer. When I'm at home, I can plug my portable hard drive into the family computer and work off of that. At university, there are computers in my lab, in my college and in my accommodation block. I can go around to a friend's house and use their computer to run my system as though I'm still at home.
The great thing about this is that almost all of these computers run Windows, so I have access to any applications (ie. Microsoft Word) that they have installed. Commercial software that I haven't had to pay for - what could be more perfect for a student?!
In my next post I'll explain the set-up I have chosen, and include instructions on how to set it up for yourself.
If you have any comments or questions then please do post below!
I recently graduated from University of Oxford and over my final year my trusty laptop slowly but surely met its demise. The next step in my life is to begin a 4 year PhD program at Cambridge in Photonic Systems Development, and I haven't got the funds at the moment to buy myself a new laptop. I am therefore turning to portable operating systems as the computing method to get me through the next four years. This blog will talk about my portable computing set-up and experience.
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| Trashing: A celebratory Oxford tradition as you come out of your final exam |
1. It's cheap
I'm a student with limited income. The only expense for running a portable system is an external hard drive. There's so much free software on the web today that you can find a free, open source program for just about any task. There are even entire operating systems which are free.
2. Today's Technology
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My portable hard drive:
USB3 with a256GB SSD
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USB3 can transfer data at 5Gbits/sec, which is the same speed - if not faster - than an IDE or SATA connection inside your computer. This allows it to make full use of an SSD (Solid State Drive), a new type of hard drive which has no moving parts, allowing it to transfer data 6 times faster than a traditional hard drive. Another advantage of a no-moving-parts SSD for a portable operating system is that it is less likely to break if you drop it.
3. Availability of computers
There's no need for me to have my own computer. When I'm at home, I can plug my portable hard drive into the family computer and work off of that. At university, there are computers in my lab, in my college and in my accommodation block. I can go around to a friend's house and use their computer to run my system as though I'm still at home.
The great thing about this is that almost all of these computers run Windows, so I have access to any applications (ie. Microsoft Word) that they have installed. Commercial software that I haven't had to pay for - what could be more perfect for a student?!
In my next post I'll explain the set-up I have chosen, and include instructions on how to set it up for yourself.
If you have any comments or questions then please do post below!
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