Linux on a disk? Any good distros?

[Elizara]

Now, if you guys didn't know, I do use Swagbucks a bit. (Mostly on my phone, now a days) The trouble is...

Their website doesn't like adblockers, and I've heard a asston of stories of poisoned ads(so like **bleep** I'm going to give up Adblocker Plus). So I'd been thinking about checking yardsales for a old lappy to linux, but a friend gave me a idea. I know there's a way to install Linux, say on a USB drive, so I can boot my PC up on that (Hopefully with Firefox/a good browser included) so I can just swagbucks away and not have to worry about getting garbage/viruses/etc on my PC since most of that trash is made for Windows.

Would anyone know of any good distros I can do that with, ones I could tell it NOT to install on the hdd?

[Stromgarde]

Ubuntu is the usual go-to for Live CDs (which, despite the name can also be used on USB drives). There are plenty of others which will get the job done, but it's hard to beat Ubuntu for ease of use and ubiquity, which is important for support when you want to kludge your way through something.

[Elizara]

Thanks Strom. I've been trying a virtual machine, but right now it doesn't seem to work (I need Flash!)

I'll keep trying, and hopefully if I go USB drive, I can have my Flash and not have this problem!

(Edit) found a Ubuntu distro that would let me run it there! Now I don't have to worry about crap on my system. ^^

[theshun]

Create a bootable install flash drive but always choose the option to "Try it out" or something (I always did it from disc). Or this way:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...ick-on-windows

[Niya]

What a coincidence, I have 2(!) USB sticks with Linux installed on them lying around xD
You can install pretty much any distro on them, just don't use the automatic partitioning and create the partitions (/boot, / and swap) by hand. (/boot optional, can be included in the / partition). And don't forget to tell it to write the boot/mbr code to the stick and not your primary HDD.
Just installed Linux Mint on a stick this week, based on Ubuntu but with an UI that's (said to be) more geared towards windows users (or folks that don't like Unity). Runs well, Firefox pre-installed. I'd recommend a fast/USB3 stick, on the older USB2 stick I tried it with setup and initial patching took about 2-3 hours. My other stick (running Ubuntu Studio) is USB3 and the system boots/updates WAY faster.

The "try it" option shun mentioned would only be interesting if you want to have a clean/reset system after each boot. Those sticks based on an ISO image work just as a DVD would and don't write any data to the stick, so everything you do/install/update gets lost on shutdown.

[Elizara]

Thanks guys. I'll see what I can do ^^ Virtualbox is behaving however; I just don't want to go adblocker plus/noscript-less for Swagbucks without making sure I'm not going to catch anything from bad ads. And Linux has very few viruses it can catch. And if by some rare happenstance I do catch something, I can redo the stick without losing my whole system (or the virtual box thing).

I proly will also see if I can burn a Ubuntu install disk; 'bro has been talking about linuxing my dad's old machine for years now (it's still having problems from the crap my dad installed on it, and it's Win 98 besides)...Maybe we can find the time to get that over with so we have a useable computer without the garbage.

[Melena]

Maybe i'm lucky, but i haven't had any issues with bad ad's on swagbucks when running videos to finish off whatever my phone doesn't do on an overnight run.

[Elizara]

Melena; maybe you are. I'm just seriously paranoid here.

[Jefe]

Kali Linux. Really painless if you make a live dvd.

You can also do a selective block w/ adb + noscript.