I’m a coder (I’m on a mac) and I’m using a computer that is a computer that “shouldn’t be messed with”. I’d like to install some command-line programs but I want to somehow be able to erase everything I did.
I know, I shouldn’t be doing any of that just-in-case something does happen.
But, I’d like to do all of my work and then have it automatically completely clean everything up when I’m finished.
I’m planning to code in php, java and maybe objective-c (Apple developer toolkit). I installed another OS (dual boot) and yeah. That didn’t go over very well with the manager….
Has anyone just said “Live OS”?
Many applications can be installed on a USB stick, see portableapps.com. (Windows only.)
If that doesn’t suit your needs, download a Ubuntu image, burn that on a CD and tell your target computer to boot from this CD. E voila, now you have a complete OS at your hand, that doesn’t leave any trace on the target computer. (Make sure to save your data on a real hard drive or USB stick before shutting down the computer.)
On a Mac, since it’s a Unix, you could install another OS X inside a chroot environment. However, I doubt, that it will suit your needs as to leave the original system untouched, since you seem to have to install lots of other stuff to get this running: http://www.algonet.se/~afb/mac/chroot.html (Google for OS X and chroot, perhaps there is a cleaner solution).
Finally you can use a virtual machine. Download VirtualBox, create a machine, use it, and the remove it and uninstall VirtualBox.