Finally received the Mandriva Flash Key I ordered.
Before we get too deep...
I already know I could've made one myself. I already know about syslinux, casper, [Ubuntu,Name-Your-Distro] DIY USB Key, etc, etc, etc...
Now that we have that out of the way...
The Mandriva key arrived still in the Dane-Elec packaging. I hate Dane-Elec, and don't really expect the thing to last very long. The plastic shell seems pretty thin, and doesn't have a convenient little "key ring" style connector for a lanyard. The lanyard they send you is some sort of terrible gummy-gel thing. To top that off, I'd much rather use a Debian based distro, and I don't particularly care for KDE...
Regardless, I wanted to try a distro "packaged" for public consumption on a key. Public consumption, you say? Take a look at their site:
Mandriva Flash 2008
That looks like marketing for public consumption to me.
On an Athlon X2 4.8G with 4G of RAM, it still seemed pretty sluggish. I blame that mostly on the Dane-Elec. Overall, the prepared system worked pretty well "out of the box" and included Compiz Fuzion, though I couldn't find Emerald or the Compiz configuration panel. After a few minutes, I felt right at home with all of the OSS favorites. The key even included Firefox and Thunderbird for Win32 on a separate partition.
Overall, it was a fun little excursion. I'm not confident that I could pass this key off to someone that isn't even sure what a shell is, which is what I was really hoping for.
For a laugh, don't forget to check out Mandriva's page.
"Offer Linux to the one you love
Protect your loved one from viruses and malware, offer them freedom of choice and the desktop of the future in a small, high-quality USB key."
Wow. That's terrible.
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