Basic Linux question,

[Futurecollector]

Hey guys, I wanted to know if I can/ if its a good idea to boot my laptop via a USB Flash Drive. I know the Ubantu site says you can dual boot with a USb Drive, but what is preferred/ better? Is it not smart to dual boot? If I do dual boot I would have to partition my HDD right?

I just want to try Linux and im not to concerned about it being hard or wtv else people may say because I will be doing this on my old Laptop after I get a new one, that way If I like it I can go from there but If I don't I won't have to worry about switching everything over wo Win7.

Thanks in advance.

[rockdogz]

Have you already tried just booting from the Linux CD? A lot of distros including Ubuntu have Live CDs which will just let you get right into Linux without installing anything. The only drawback is that it's a little slower when you launch programs since it accesses the disc.

[Futurecollector]

Have you already tried just booting from the Linux CD? A lot of distros including Ubuntu have Live CDs which will just let you get right into Linux without installing anything. The only drawback is that it's a little slower when you launch programs since it accesses the disc.

I don't really want to go that route since I have read that it slows down, Im also just getting everything ready for when I get my new laptop in the mail, this way if I jack something up and do have to re install win I wont be with out a laptop for the 18 hours it would take lol

[r3dn3ck]

+1. Boot the Ubuntu cd and enjoy. You'll have a full linux distro but won't be able to install any packages into it (well... not without a little work).

Using a flash drive will land you with a system that lives a very short time. Flash drives progressively lose their fidelity. If you just want to try it, feel free but it will be about as fast as the cd but more flexible.

Linux is NOT hard. Just forget everything about windows and solve your linux problems in Linux the Linux way. Welcome to the future.

[zfields]

I use a linux live OS on a USB stick for doing file recovery and some repair stuff. Its a great way to do it, and helpful since it is writeable media if you need to modify it/save stuff to it.

As for a semi permanant dual boot......id pass. To easy to partition and set it up the right way.

[bigmike82]

"Welcome to the future."
Not until the gaming problem is completely solved.

The LiveCD will give you a good idea of what the system feels like. Another option, if you want to actually be able to use the system as if it was installed on your HD, is to download VMWare Player and run Linux inside with a prebuilt appliance.

Check here for more details:

http://www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware/

The biggest limitation of doing that is that you don't get some of the eye candy as VMWare can't accelerate the graphics, but otherwise it works the same.

[gugoo]

The real answer is not to dual boot but boot GNU/Linux only and have Windows as a virtual guest

[nick]

You can run Linux in a VM, that way you don't have to dual-boot, and you can have both Windows and Linux at the same time. I do that with multiple OSs on my laptop. Just make sure to have enough RAM, if you run a lot of VMs.

[stix213]

Safest way as far as the data on your current HDD is concerned is to just get a 2nd HDD, and replace the HDD in your laptop with the new one. Install Linux on that.

Running Linux off of a CD sucks because CD's have slow access, and you won't be writing to the CD so is of limited usefulness (I usually use them as either diagnostic disks or to install Linux on the hard drive). Installing Linux on a USB flash sucks because of slow USB flash performance, so will give you a bad impression.

[pbsmind]

Options:

1. Boot from USB Stick like you said, checkout unetbootin, you can put any live CD on a thumbdrive that way.

2. Burn a live CD

3. Download Virtualbox and put linux in the VM

All of these are going to be slower then running it from your hard drive but you'll be able to get a good feel for the system.

Best Option and how I have my work machine:

The real answer is not to dual boot but boot GNU/Linux only and have Windows as a virtual guest

[xrMike]

Flash drives progressively lose their fidelity.

Not to thread-jack, but really? Roughly how long can you count on a USB stick before it may start degrading? Is this longer or shorter than a CD/DVD?

Just wondering what is better media for storing important files on, long-term.

[ibanezfoo]

Not to thread-jack, but really? Roughly how long can you count on a USB stick before it may start degrading? Is this longer or shorter than a CD/DVD?

Just wondering what is better media for storing important files on, long-term.

Depends on the manufacturer but he is right. USB flash drives (all flash, technically) have a limited amount of writes. I don't know that I would trust them for any long term storage, but then it depends how long. CD/DVD only lasts what, 5 years, with the dyes they use nowdays? Old school tapes last quite awhile. Otherwise you can copy to a couple HD's and stick them on a shelf.

[yellowsulphur]

Hey guys, I wanted to know if I can/ if its a good idea to boot my laptop via a USB Flash Drive. I know the Ubantu site says you can dual boot with a USb Drive, but what is preferred/ better? Is it not smart to dual boot? If I do dual boot I would have to partition my HDD right?

I just want to try Linux and im not to concerned about it being hard or wtv else people may say because I will be doing this on my old Laptop after I get a new one, that way If I like it I can go from there but If I don't I won't have to worry about switching everything over wo Win7.

Thanks in advance.

What did you end up doing?

[rexblaine]

If you have enough RAM just initrd from your USB into a ramdrive, you only need the USB at boot time and then you never access it - read it won't wear out. You could leave windoze bootable from your HDD and use a partition on that for /opt, /export, or whatever you need permastored.

Google initrd ramdrive diskless Linux