Latest UBUNTU 10.04 LTS...recommended..

C_Mababejive

Just running the latest Ubuntu booted from a usb flash drive.

I must say it works very well and actually works as fast if not faster than vista even when booted from my flash drive on which is it currently installed.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

nottseagull

Do you mean you can run it without data going onto your PC's hard drive like you can with Knoppix?

tronator

nottseagull wrote: »

Do you mean you can run it without data going onto your PC's hard drive like you can with Knoppix?

Ubuntu can do this for ages now...

fwor

It does make you wonder - how much better can a free operating system get?

It keeps coming up with small surprises - like plugging in my sister's iPod earlier today, and instead of it just charging (the reason I plugged it in), a window pops up and offers me a number of options, including opening it with Rythmbox. Do that and it opens with her playlist displayed, ready to play or add to, "drag and drop", from my own playlists.

If you've downloaded an ISO file, you don't need to then download an application to write it to a CD - it's all built in - just right-click and choose "Write to Disc".

And my 3 mobile broadband dongle simply worked - no downloads or sudo apt-get installs - just a configuration pages and it's there. Though I admit I was lucky - apparently there are other chipsets that are a bit more difficult to get working.

Considering they have none of the muscle that MS does to force hardware manufacturers to write drivers for Linux, they do a remarkably good job - though I guess it's inevitable that there will always be devices that won't be compatible, if only because they have to keep the kernel image size small enough to fit on one CD...

debitcardmayhem

It also works really well on my Netbook and Laptop loads up/ shuts down lots quicker than Windows. Only problem I have is the Lappy wireless card is not supported on the core system so I have to re-make the driver with new kernel updates, takes 30 seconds so no hardship there.

C_Mababejive

nottseagull wrote: »

Do you mean you can run it without data going onto your PC's hard drive like you can with Knoppix?

Yes,im running it on a 4Gb PNY usb pen drive...excellent..fast and no whirring and gurring..

nottseagull

Does that mean I could extend battery life on a netbook by effectively using it as an SSD hard drive, just using Windows for stuff like iplayer?
Could it be operated from my 2 GB SD card, and would I need to format it first?

S0litaire

To create a "Live USB" of Ubuntu follow these steps:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=811397

A USB is slower than SSD but slightly faster than a Hard drive.

Ideally if your Laptop has a PCI-ExpressCard slot you can pick up a 4GB SSD card and install the "Live OS" on to that.
It's as fast as an internal SSD and will last longer than a USB stick.

C_Mababejive

S0litaire wrote: »

To create a "Live USB" of Ubuntu follow these steps:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=811397

A USB is slower than SSD but slightly faster than a Hard drive.

Ideally if your Laptop has a PCI-ExpressCard slot you can pick up a 4GB SSD card and install the "Live OS" on to that.
It's as fast as an internal SSD and will last longer than a USB stick.

Presumably also check that your pc/lappy can boot from the PCI Expresscard??