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Just a few days ago a friend told me that he uses a Linux distribution on a USB-stick whenever he has trouble with his operating system. Although I won’t tell you which OS that is, I guess you figured it out already.

Many Linux distributions are available and a few of them were designed especially for slow computer and/or USB-sticks (also called pendrives). This directly points to the first Linux distribution I would like to introduce you to, which is designed for an installation on a portable device: Pendrive-Linux. Other options are Damn Small Linux (DSL) and TinyCore (TC). The latter one requires only 10MB of space. The reason why I’m writing about these distributions is simply that not everyone has a 4GB USB-stick or bigger available to install Ubuntu and might just want to try out other distributions anyways. If questions remain on how to install these, please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Installing Linux onto your USB-stick:

Get UNetbootin and install it, just like you would install every other software for Windows. Next to that, download the distribution that you would like to try out, for example Ubuntu. Check before you download, if the Linux distribution you would like to try out is supported. Now everything is pretty much self-explanatory. Choose the distribution you would like to install and the folder, you saved the downloaded file in. The good thing about this process is, that you don’t need to burn an image to a CD. Just choose the .iso file and choose the drive you woulod like to install it onto. Now lean back and wait. After the installation you will be able to restart your computer from the USB-device (if supported) and work with an operating system, which is portable and doesn’t expose you to the danger of deleting files from your harddisk. The ‘normal’ installation process of Ubuntu (for example) is so easy though, that everybody who is able to press Enter often enough can install it – seriously.

Update:

An article at lifehacker.com pointed out a nice piece of software called uSbuntu. This software allows to create a bootable version of Ubuntu (and apparently other Linux distributions as well) onto a USB-stick. While this software might not be as comprehensive as UNetbootin (see above), it sure is an easy way to create a bootable version of your favorite Linux distribution. As my heading suggests, this software is Windows only, which I find rather funny.

The easiest way to install Ubuntu is probably the installation from within Windows, using Wubi. To do so, you will have to get Ubuntu from here, where you can download it for free. If you know whether you will need a 32bit or 64bit version, click the Custom Options depending on what you would like to download. If you’re unsure, just click download from a place near you. You will get an .iso image file. This can easily be burned with any burning programme. Just visit this page, if you don’t know how to burn images. Once this is done, only two (possibly three)  more steps are necessary to install Ubuntu.

Before I tell you how to install Ubuntu, I would like to start with an introduction to Wubi though. Wubi is a nice little Windows programme, that allows you to install Ubuntu like any other software. This means that once you want to get rid of it, for whatever reason you may have, go to your Installed software list and simply delete it.

Installation:

Firstly, insert the Ubuntu-CD in your Cd drive. When the autostart-window opens, click on Wubi to install. If this shouldn’t be available, you can download and install Wubi from here, install and start as any other Windows programme. Once Wubi is running, you have to decide about a few options. For starters, there’s the harddisk you want to install it to. Choose a harddisk/partition of your liking, which is big enough for the next setting – the size. You will want to give Ubuntu 10GB, which should proof sufficient for most needs, but if you have more available and plan to install many applications and/or games, you might as well add the one or other gigabyte. Depending on how much space you have available (or plan to need), click on an option and then enter a username and password. This password is important, as you’ll need it to log in and furthermore to enter whenever changes in the system are made (e.g. the installation of software).

Attention: Although I haven’t heard of problems using Wubi, it’s a free application afterall and may cause the loss of data. So please safe your important files or make a backup before installing Ubuntu.

The installation will create a bootloader. That’s a software which will ask you which operating system you would like to load after starting your computer. So when you finished the installation, restart your pc and choose Ubuntu to start it. Now Ubuntu will start to install. Why? Because Wubi actually didn’t install the software but created a file, which Ubuntu uses like a harddisk. If you’re interested about that, you might want to read about virtualization, otherwise just enjoy the easy process. Once Ubuntu finished the installation, restart your computer and have fun using your new operating system.