A few questions about Linux

[MAAD]

Hi everyone. I currently run Windows XP Pro on 2 machines but have thought of running Linux on a bootable thumbdrive but I have some questions first.

1. Will Linux run off of ANY thumbdrive or must it be pre-formatted for an OS? Are there certain brands/models that are made specifically for running an OS? What capacity would be ok to buy in order to run Linux?

2. Is it true that Linux is not vulnerable to viruses and malware?

3. What version of Linux would be best to run on a thumbdrive?

Thanks in advance for any input.

MAAD

 

[Kougar]

Linux can be run off a thumbdrive. Linux can also be run on computers without hard drives, directly from the CD itself, and you can use thumbdrives for file and setting saves.

Any OS is vulnerable, the better question is how does it compare to the rest. Suffice to say Linux is probably safer than OS X, but defniitely safer than Windows anything.

As far as what version, a large number of distros support these features you are looking for. I'll let the more linux knowledgeable folk suggest specific versions though, it's been awhile since I followed the developements on the latest versions.

 

[Rob Williams]

The first question I have is why you'd want to run a full OS off of a thumb drive in the first place? It's possible, but it's an inefficient way of doing things. If you are just unsure as to whether or not you will enjoy the OS, you could always download a live CD and run the entire OS without any sort of installation.

Numerous distros offer such functionality:

http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://en.opensuse.org/
http://www.sabayonlinux.org/
http://fedoraproject.org/ (Be sure to download the live media version)

If you have a whack of bandwidth to spare, you could download all four and test each one to see which you prefer. If you end up wanting to install one of them to your rig, you will need to partition your hard drive in order to fit it in. If that's a route you want to take, feel free to ask us here at the time.

As for installing on a thumb drive, here's a reasonable how-to:

http://www.althack.com/2006/03/10/how-to-run-linux-on-a-usb-drive/

I have not tested it, but it looks alright.

 

[MAAD]

Rob, well, I'm mainly interested in running it off a thumbdrive because I don't want to actually install it on either of my machines since I'm much more comfortable using XP at the moment. I also need XP to run my applications that don't happen to run on Linux. However, I can't seem to get PHP to run on either of my machines (I had them working at one time but somehow they both stopped running PHP all of a sudden). I'd rather run PHP on a Linux system but don't want to run my machines on Linux permanently or even set up a dual boot system. A Linux bootable thumbdrive would be great for me because I would just be able to run Linux when I needed it and save files to it that I could use on either machine (laptop and a desktop).

So, if I go the thumbdrive route, how large of a drive would be necessary? 2 gig? 4 gig? More?

And thanks for your input Kougar and Rob. It's really appreciated!

MAAD

 

[Rob Williams]

Depends on what kind of distro you want to use, and also what you plan to do with it. I'd allow 3 GB for the OS at least, at a minimum, but even more would be great. I'd recommend at least an 8 GB, although a 4 GB could get you by if you don't plan to go all out.

The alternative would be to install a secondary hard drive (even an older one you might have lying around) and install it on that. Dual-booting is quite easy, you might be impressed. It's also easy to undo if you don't want Linux on your rig anymore.

If you happen to go that route, feel free to ask for help here. It's easy to pull off, but you just need to know what to do, and in what order.