OS X Portable Applications
Having a portable application on your external drive have the advantage that you have not to install it when you are away from your machine (at school, work, customer). Preferences are stored inside the bundle as user is not missed up by other "strange folders". Your is the drive, your is the app, your are the preferences.
Mozilla application can be started with a flag that set the preferences path, all other use symlink hack.
Security issues remain when keychain is used (but this happen also using local apps on a machine that is not your), or your drive is stolen.
Some apps use Keychain (Camino (but can be disabled), Adium, Cyberduck) but generally a window ask you to save password to keychain. Mozilla apps don't use keychain and other don't need it (gimp, inkscape, OOo...).
Nothing is perfect :)
by gand — Oct 17
Having a portable application on your external drive have the advantage that you have not to install it when you are away from your machine (at school, work, customer). Preferences are stored inside the bundle as user is not missed up by other "strange folders". Your is the drive, your is the app, your are the preferences.
Mozilla application can be started with a flag that set the preferences path, all other use symlink hack.
Security issues remain when keychain is used (but this happen also using local apps on a machine that is not your), or your drive is stolen.
Some apps use Keychain (Camino (but can be disabled), Adium, Cyberduck) but generally a window ask you to save password to keychain. Mozilla apps don't use keychain and other don't need it (gimp, inkscape, OOo...).
Nothing is perfect :)