Traveling With Linux [Archive]

Old_Grey_Wolf

January 3rd, 2011, 11:03 PM

Those are good suggestions.

I don't do updates when I travel either. With Linux it doesn't concern me as much to have a vulnerability in the system that probably wound not be exploited during a trip that lasts a few weeks. It's not like Linux waits until a vulnerability is exploited in the wild before it gets patched. I would also have to do something complicated or stupid to expose myself to most of the vulnerabilities in the first place.

I update before I leave on a trip as well. Part of the reason is that some hotel Internet speeds are terribly slow. Some of them may advertise that they have broadband Internet but it appears that some of them have a broadband Internet connection divided among all of their guests which results in the individual guests getting something just above dial-up speeds.

I carry a Live USB instead of a Live CD. I have a mini-notebook for traveling that doesn't have a CD drive. I tried to use a laptop when traveling; however, it was heavy to carry around all the time and used a lot of precious space in my carry-on bag. The Live USB can come in handy in other ways as well; especially if it is persistent.

I have stayed at the same hotel twice in the last six months that required Windows and IE to login to their wireless network. A friend of mine checked into the same hotel. He is a Windows only user but hated IE so much that he changed hotel reservations after the first day. My mini-notebook has a 250GB HDD so I can dual boot it with Windows 7 and Linux. I just booted into Windows 7 and lived with it after trying everything I could think of to connect to their network using Linux. The hotel staff was not helpful; because, the hotel chain contracted with someone to set up their network and had no idea how it worked. If it was a problem with my home network I would have continued to search for a solution. However, I was on travel for business reasons working 12 to 14 hours a day even on weekends; therefore, I took the easy way out and just booted Windows.