I’ve known about portable browsers — the ones that can be installed on a USB drive, such as Firefox — for a few years. But I never really thought much about using them myself, that is, until I figured out how useful they are in situations where I do not or cannot have administrator privileges on my PC.
Last week I decided to give the portable version of Firefox a try. Then I also decided to see if someone had come up with a portable version of my favorite browser, Flock. Fortunately, someone has already thought of this. I installed the portable versions of Firefox and Flock on my USB drive and voila, I was freed from the oppressive and limiting strangehold of Internet Explorer! (I’m exaggerating a little of course, but I do hate IE.)
I know that there are limitations to their use but for now, I am really pleased with how the portable versions of these browsers work. Both Firefox and Flock run quite smoothly on my USB drive. I have noticed no degradation of load time or anything like that.
On a slight tangent…I am somewhat surprised that there hasn’t been more discussion among techie librarian folks about Flock. I think it’s a great tool, one that is well suited for the kinds of things that I like to do, such as blogging, photo sharing, sharing of bookmarks, etc. Almost all of these features are available in Firefox, too, but they are more nicely integrated in a single package with Flock. The major limitation I find with Flock is the lack of extensions that I find indispensable, including FlashBlock, TinyURL Creator, Adblock Filter Set Updater, and others.
Does that really get your around security? I have been a few places with restrictive security. A lot of blocked sites too. That is an interesting concept. Will have to remember that for the future. I have never heard of Flock. Will have to try that out. Sounds like they really hooked you up there at Abbott!
Hey Steve,
Glad to hear you’re liking Flock. If you want to help lead Flock evangelism among librarians, just let me know how I can help.
Our first beta release, Cardinal, is coming out soon. We’ll have a new website up when it launches and I think you’ll be much happier with our extensions support and catalog.
Cheers,
Will Pate
Community Ambassador, Flock