Today I installed Ubuntu to a USB drive

[foxfirefey]

Because I don't have a hard drive in this computer yet, and it just works and I am kind of amazed at how far the process has come. I'm remembering my first Linux installation experiences, like OpenSUSE or Mandriva or something or other years and years ago, and the first one that I actually stuck with, which was Gentoo, because after spending two days sweating through that installation with all the compiling and figuring out kernel options you bet I was going to actually use it, yessir.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

I got given a 16Gb usb for Xmas, and couldn't help thinking
a] I could run Ubuntu off this easily.
b] it's bigger than the first hard drive I had...and at the time I thought 512Mb was HUGE!

Yup, we're living in the future alright.

[foxfirefey]

I'll admit that there are some pauses and slownesses I assume are related to working off of a USB drive instead of an actual hard drive, but overall it still just boggles me. And I think I'll keep it around with me just in case! You never know when having your own OS might come in handy.

[siliconshaman]

Depends on what version of USB you're using. 1.1 transfer rates are slower than most hard drives, 2 or above are about the same.

and agreed on the keeping your own OS around. I used to do that with freeware windows stuff, when I was hopping from machine to machine a lot... linux would just be safer over all if you're using public machines, or dealing with a possibly infected machine.

[feathertail]

My first install was just 2 1/2 years ago with Fedora. I couldn't figure out how to make it dual-boot and ended up spending the next couple of months using Linux only.

It was a lot more pleasant than I thought it would be. >.>b