install ubuntu to a USB VS create USB startup disc

[wrpp]

Hi,

I recently received my Ubuntu 9.0.4. CD and now I want to install Ubuntu on my 16gb USB disc.
I kinda know how to do it.

My question is: would you rather recommend to install it on the usb disc as a startup disc (write a bootable image of the CD with an option to "try Ubuntu")

or

install it as a complete OS on the USB disc?

I'm for the second option.

But maybe some of you know any advantages of installing the bootable image?


And also I have 3gigs of ram, is 1gb of swap enough for extreme situations?

Thanks,

[alanrlow]

Hi,

I recently received my Ubuntu 9.0.4. CD and now I want to install Ubuntu on my 16gb USB disc.
I kinda know how to do it.

My question is: would you rather recommend to install it on the usb disc as a startup disc (write a bootable image of the CD with an option to "try Ubuntu")

or

install it as a complete OS on the USB disc?

I'm for the second option.

But maybe some of you know any advantages of installing the bootable image?


And also I have 3gigs of ram, is 1gb of swap enough for extreme situations?

Thanks,

I wouldn't do the complete install to the USB stick if I were you. They only have a finite number of write cycles, unlike RAM, and something like the OS which reads and writes to the disk all the time will quickly render the USB disk useless. 3 Gig of RAM should mean little or no swapping needed unless you want to hibernate to disk, (not recommended) then you'd need more.

Alan

[wrpp]

I wouldn't do the complete install to the USB stick if I were you. They only have a finite number of write cycles, unlike RAM, and something like the OS which reads and writes to the disk all the time will quickly render the USB disk useless. 3 Gig of RAM should mean little or no swapping needed unless you want to hibernate to disk, (not recommended) then you'd need more.

Alan

Thanks for replying,

Recently I installed 200mb Slax on my USB key, on a ext2 partition which makes less reads/writes than ext3/ext4.


And a different question:
Would you rather recommend Slackware or OpenSuse for installing on my Laptop?
(I didn't like ubuntu that much, it didn't run well on my laptop, I don't know why)

I'm new to linux, but I'm experienced with computers. I'm going to use it for mainly programming and academic stuff.

Thanks