https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/try-ubuntu-before-you-install#1-getting-started
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/creating-and-using-a-live-installation-image/
I believe most MB bios’ started supporting booting through the USB bus at least 10 years ago, but particularly in the older versions, you had to turn that function on in settings.
THANK YOU! I was just looking for USB-based installs this morning and ya came to the rescue. I’ve got a lot of external storage stuff going on, and I’m not sure I won’t have horrible problems with Linux. This will settle my mind some.
“Or you could skip the install and try the live versions that boots from a USB drive.”
I would like to add “Puppy Linux” to that list...
And a really cool one is what I am using as a base for mine. Little more technical but very cool. The Developer Barry K encourages taking his work and making it your own as you like. You might be interested in the mechanics of how he put this together. The base stays intact not touched on the stick, while it loads a “clone” image in RAM. The second clone runs in RAM and never touches the internal drive. It never leaves a trace unless you purposely access the internal drive. And it is designed to create additional isolated containers like docker with just a click.
It is under half a Gig in size. And it does not use an .iso install. It is all based on images and three base files that can be copied to any drive or partition. For extra containers it just clones what everimage you already have customized from a catalog of images. Pretty slick stuff. I have just striped it down a bit and removed a lot of apps that will not be needed and and I am hooking the underground apps into it as we talked about in the other thread. You might like to check this out... From the same Dev as Puppy Linux but a WHOLE different secure critter... Even comes with a server default.