Absolute linux newbie here seeks advice

[chempsey]

Hi all,

First of all, excuse my ignorance if I get or explain something wrong. Please remember I'm new to linux and no looking to get flamed!

So,

What i would like to do is run a distro on a usb that is a little bit better than the pen drive linux I previously tried. I know there is a load of guides on how to put OS whatever on usb whatever.

The reason why I want to do this is to look at the alternatives to Win x. I would like something I can plug in, try and decide. I could download, burn and run all the live cd distros but to be honest it would be a bit of a waste of money and time to use up those cds!

My PC specs are:

2.4 Ghz dual core
512MB Graphics card
0.5TB HDD

I have lots of usb mem sticks to use but I had in mind using an 8GB stick.

Anyway,

Over to you guys, what do you suggest?

[reed9]

Howdy. We don't flame people for being new, no worries.

But, I'm not clear what exactly your question is.

You can definitely run almost any distro off a USB stick. I recommend trying out a lot of distros that way, and it certainly saves on CDs.

Probably the easiest tool to make live USB installs is unetbootin.

[Rubberman]

What reed9 said - try unetbootin. It runs on Linux or Windows and will create a bootable live USB drive that you can use to try out various distributions to see which you like the best.