bootable linux os from thumb drive

[digitaldiva]

Hi,

I am new to the forums and pretty new to Linux. I know there are a lot of bootable Linux OS-es. I am an average user. I use Open Office and the Internet primarily.

I am looking for a OS that I can boot from external hard drive / USB thumb drive. I would like that OS to be customizable so I can save my preferences and documents on my external storage. I travel to many different offices frequently and I would essentially like to boot into the same OS anywhere I go.

I know there are many options when it comes to choosing a bootable Linux OS. Is there one that allows for the functionality I described? What do options or products do people recommend???

Thank you for your help!

[Freston]

Welcome!

I've got a Slax distro on my USB-stick waiting to be installed, as soon as I find some machine capable of executing .exe files

But there are others as well. Most require some work from your part so search around to find a HowTo you like, and which is more to the point than I can offer you. Here is a site dedicated to the purpose.

I guess it's your lucky day, 'cause you'll find all distro's tuned to being bootable from USB-stick are tuned towards what you want to do (OOo and FF).

Oh! Not all distro's require a reboot from the host machine, although I envision that rebooting does clear a lot of memory... (all of it, for example )