Thanks, Richard... I wish I had your encyclopedic mind. This was way outside my personal experience not ever having owned a PC. I thought this may have had something to do with writing apps for handhelds - Rev having a Palm interface option or something like that... Jim
on 8/12/06 12:45 PM, Richard Gaskin wrote: > Jim Carwardine wrote: > >> This appears to be a PC only upgrade. Is that true or does the Mac OS >> version contain the U3 stuff? Jim > > At its core, U3 is just a novel interface to a feature built into the > Windows OS: > > On Win, any read-only volume can have an autorun.inf file in its root > directory which causes the OS to automatically run whatever file is > specified in that INF file whenever the volume is mounted. This is how > Windows CDs have been commonly made for more than a decade, to the point > that today Win users so expect the CD to "do something" that if you > don't use an INF file they'll call your tech support to report that the > CD is "broken". :) > > U3 merely tricks the OS into making autorun.inf files runnable from > flash drives, by partitioning the drive so that one partition (the one > that contains the menu application) is read-only. > > Partitioning is simple and soon many non-U3-member vendors were offering > custom partitioned drives (you can order these from a great many vendors > around the web), so U3 went further to differentiate itself with the > recent addition of the auto-shutdown feature and a couple others. > > Because the core of the U3 experience is dependent on a Windows-specific > OS feature, currently U3 can only deliver that experience on Windows, > and no on Mac or Linux. > > And because Apple has explicitly expressed a disdain for the security > risks introduced when any auto-run feature is added to an OS (they had > this in an early version of QT, but after it was used to spread viruses > they yanked it and vowed to never do that again), it seems unlikely that > Apple would risk losing the advantage they currently enjoy in being > perceived as more secure than Windows just for the modest benefit U3 > provides. > > Perhaps the coolest thing about U3 is that the vendors using it have > really helped pushed the notion of delivering applications on Flash > drives, which helps not only the millions of customers who buy U3 drives > by the order of magnitude more who buy non-U3 drives. > > And as Rev developers, it's always been a trivial matter for us to > deliver fully self-contained apps which run from removable media without > needing to modify the host computer. While Rev's work in the > U3-specific additions are helpful, you can also deliver portable apps on > ANY removable drive, U3 or not. > > For the benefit of developers looking to deploy to the full range of > Flash drives on all major operating systems, a discussion group has been > formed to explore ways of establishing simple common directories and an > open source player to make it easy for developers and simple for their > users: > > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/U4-Group/> > > > -- > Richard Gaskin > Managing Editor, revJournal > _______________________________________________________ > Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com > _______________________________________________ > use-revolution mailing list > [email protected] > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution -- www.TalentSeeker.ca www.HiringSmart.ca/ns www.KeepingTheBest.ca/ns <http://www.OwnYourFuture-net.com> Own Your Future Consulting Services Limited, 23 Shoal Cove Road, Seabright, Nova Scotia, Canada. B3Z 3A9 Phone: 902-823-2339. Fax: 902-823-2139 _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
