Portable or with Windows

[chensteven]

Hi, I just finished building my own computer running on W7 Prof 64 bit OS and I also want to try using Linux as well.

My question is that is there a difference between installing Ubuntu on a USB or running it along with Windows?

If there isn't, then what is a good portable Linux distro? Is Ubuntu one? Or are there any other good recommendations.

I'm currently running my OS/Adobe/Major Games on my Crucial M4 128GB SSD, and I have 2x 1 TB Samsung F3; one for majority of the programs I have on Windows and the other one just for files such as movies/songs/pictures and etc. If I choose to run it with Windows, how would you guys recommend allocating my drives for the use of Linux?

Also, I was wondering if I can get some personal opinions on why would one use Linux in the first place? I know roughly what Linux is but I still don't find a reason WHY I would use Linux tho?

Edit: Btw this is my computer:

i7 2600k
MSI GTX 560 Ti
8GB Ram
128 GB SSD
2x 1TB HHD
750W PSU


Hopefully, I'm not asking stupid questions. Thanks.

[yancek]

My question is that is there a difference between installing Ubuntu on a USB or running it along with Windows?

Yes. There are different methods and programs available to install to a flash drive. The most popular are unetbootin and pendrivelinux. You can google eithr and get detailed information on them.

There are also several ways to install Ubuntu to an internal/external harddrive with windows. You can do a wubi install which installs Ubuntu inside your windows as a program.
You can do an auto install alongside windows which will hopefully install on a separate partition. You can also select and create partitions yourself for the installation. By far the greatest problem with new Linux users having problems with an installation is user error and that is usually a result of not doing enough reading or research before beginning.

WHY I would use Linux tho?

If you don't know, you probably don't have any reason. Freedom of choice as to what you can do and how you can use your computer, access to all source code if you want, free as in cost, more stability...

If you use your computer primarily as a toy for specific games, you might want to stick with windows.