PortableApps.com: One of the coolest freeware sites…..

I am super-duper impressed with John Haller’s Portable Apps:

http://portableapps.com

The premise of a “portable app” is…I’ll let John tell it:

“A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug, none of your personal data is left behind”

What John has done is take open-source freeware Windows programs and made them “portable”. Included on the site are:

Development

NVU Portable – The easy-to-use NVU web editor
XAMPP – Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin and more in an integrated package

Games

Sudoku Portable – the wildly popular and addictive puzzle game

Graphics & Pictures

GIMP Portable – Photo and Image Editor

Internet

FileZilla Portable – the full-featured FTP client
FireFTP Extension (for Firefox) – a lightweight extension
Firefox Portable – the award-winning web browser that’s safe and secure
Miranda IM Portable – chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
Portable Gaim – chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
Sage Extension (for Firefox) – A full-featured RSS extension
Thunderbird Portable – the handy email client
NVU Portable – the easy-to-use webpage editor

Music & Video

VLC Media Player Portable – An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats

Office

AbiWord Portable – a lightweight word processor compatible with Microsoft Word files
Calendar Extension (for Firefox and Thunderbird) – A lightweight extension for your calendar and tasks
Portable OpenOffice.org – word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility
Sunbird Portable – Calendar and task management with a familiar interface
Thunderbird Portable (Address Book) – Email client’s built-in address book with import/export functions