Linux Booting from USB Stick

Hi, I am a newbie (today) and at 63 would like some help please. I have a Dell Dimension 8300 which I bought 5 years ago when I became disabled. I have Vista as
my OS fully up to date. I have read a lot in both computer mags and the press about Linux and I would like to put this on a spare 8GB USB stick I have. I have looked at my BIOS and found no setting 'to boot from USB' I have asked DELL and they said that this is not a hardware problem but a software one and If I would like to pay they will send me some help. Can someone please point me in the right direction?
Thank you for any help.:D

UGGY

Welcome to the forums! :)

Check the Dell website to see if there is a BIOS update available for your motherboard that might give you the option to boot from USB devices. For some instructions and other info on setting up various Linux distributions to boot from USB, take a look around here:

Boot and run Linux from a USB flash memory stick | USB Pen Drive Linux

Hope it all works out well for you.

I'd like to make a suggestion. If you don't want to make partitions and do a classic install, you can install Ubuntu inside Windows without making a new partition.
Just download WUBI and tell it how much space to hold for Ubuntu (it will make a file, not a partition so there is no danger to your data), your language and a username/password. It will also make a very simple menu to choose Vista or Ubuntu during boot. Want more?? You can unistall it through add/remove programs!!!