Where are the Mac OS X portable a licatio ?

I just bought a 2GB SanDisk Cruzer micro drive from Best Buy (on a killer $45 sale this week, at least in CO by the way), and it offers su ort for 'portable a licatio ' for Windows (and I'm sure Linux too, though I admittedly don't follow the big penguin that closely). In case you aren't familiar: portable a licatio , in this context, mean that an a (again, on Windows) can be i talled on one of these mobile drives as well as run from it, including preference files and the like (the actual ec is called U3, and SanDisk has a hand in it, in case you're curious). For example: one could i tall a copy of Firefox on this drive and run it on a public or work PC, with all browser history, preferences and bookmarks saved on the drive - not on the host PC (these a licatio all have to be custom-built, and the U3 board has to a rove them into the fold). Setting aside any obligatory discu ion about security, this is an a olutely killer ability for the mobile nerd in many of us.

Now I know most Mac OS X a licatio can run fine from one of these drive heck, I run a few myself, including utilities for my iPod which I simply store right on the iPod (yes, it can do that, as long as you turn on disk use from iTunes). But why ha 't the second half of this 'portable a licatio ' concept caught on with the Mac OS Xiverse? This concept and these a could rock everyone's world, from the mobile student to freelancers and even the techies who are su orting Macs for busine es big and small.

So where are they?

Is the Mac OS X community simply not as worried about leaving their Firefox browsing history lying around on public machines? I doubt it. Are developers just not interested? Not likely. Could this be an example of the Mac community lying down while a truly useful i ovation is dangling in our faces? I tead of throwing down my eculation, I'd rather open this up for discu ion. What say you, TUAW readers?