Installing on non-networked computer

[Fraxinus]

I am hoping to install Ubuntu on a non-networked computer, and I need to decide whether this will be practical before I actually buy the machine (the requirement for non-networked comes from a security policy at work).

I have a few requirements for packages which I guess may not be in the downloadable installation image (e.g. latex, gfortran, grace, povray, maxima...), and I am wondering whether it will be possible to download the various packages onto a USB stick using a networked Windows machine, and then install packages from this stick.

My main questions are: Do you think this is a practical approach (or will there be so many files to transfer during installation and upgrades because of dependencies, that I should forget the project now)? And, is there an explanation you could point me to about how to do package installation using such a usb stick?

Many thanks for your help! - I'm a long time Linux user, but very green when it comes to installation/maintenance.

[cyb3r_sn4k3]

You might want to try remastering your ubuntu install so that you'll have all the apps that you need and you can simply install it on the system which does not have networking.

Try remastersys I use it, its great.

[Fraxinus]

Thank you - that is an interesting suggestion about remastersys: it certainly would be a good tool for the second time I do this.

The problem at the moment is that I don't have access to any linux machine at all!