FaunOS USB flash devices are portable operating environments (POE, for short) that enjoy many advantages over live CD- or DVD-based systems. FaunOS USBs have no movable parts, resist damage because they expose no data areas, provide faster operation, and fit in a smaller space. Here's a list of features and benefits of using a POE:

Features and Benefits

• Save changes and customize your operating environment

  FaunOS is packed with lots of pre-installed applications designed to cover the typical user's needs. Still, you'll likely want to install apps specific to your needs, or change settings. Because you can save changes back to the USB, you can customize the POE and make this operating environment your own.
  

• For users who have both a desktop and a notebook

  Maintaining the fat client OSs on both computers typically involves some duplication of effort. Using a POE, only a single OS is maintained. From a usability standpoint, the physical and graphical representation of information (think of the shortcuts on the desktop) ought to be the same when you go from using the desk computer to using the notebook. Being able to pull the USB key out of the desktop and plug it into the notebook and continue work on that spreadsheet you were last working on, is an important feature of POEs.

• Hardware replacement

  Buying a new computer no longer involves setting up the OS and all its applications. You check that the new computer in fact works with your POE before you leave the store.

• Leave the notebook home

  A USB key is much smaller than a notebook. If you know that a computer will be available to you at your destination, it might be a lot easier to carry that FaunOS USB key than carry the laptop.

• Privacy

  Because the POE does not interact with the computer's internal hard drive (unless you deliberately make it do so), you are protected from malware, spyware and the like that may exist on the host machine. And once you shutdown, there is no trace of your activity on that machine.

• Easy Backup

  Backing up your FaunOS USB key is easy. Plug-in another USB into another USB port and back up using the FaunOS Installer from the desktop. A good partition manager is included and accessible from the desktop, also.

• No Lock-in

  Best of all, FaunOS is open source software (released under the GPL V2 license). This means your data, your computing environment, in short, your way of doing things is not locked into any particular vendor (FaunOS included) or proprietary format. It's your computer (although if armed with a FaunOS POE, maybe not), it's your data: you control it.