Mint/Ubuntu does, as I am booted that way right now, but all of them should be able to. With Mint or Ubuntu it is easy. No grocking required. Just works. The rest there may be a cpl of minutes to config it to work.
I could boot Mint from a thumbdrive.
was several years ago
I’m not much of a Linux guy but I do have a thumbdrive that boots to FreeBSD that I use to reset the admin password on Windows machines.
There’ a persistent Linux Mint USB boot setup that will take the software and your data to use on various machines.
One of many places to check it out:
https://www.fosslinux.com/60398/create-a-linux-mint-usb-drive-with-persistence.htm
Anything based on Ubuntu is best imho because the community is so large. I’ve never not been able to find and answer to a question I had.
I’ve run several versions, Xubuntu, Lubuntu and currently run Kubuntu on a 7-8 year old Thinkpad. Kubuntu runs the Plasma desktop which can be made as basic and bland as you want or as fancy as you want.
Most every flavor of Ubuntu and many major versions of Linux will boot from a USB, can be test driven and installed from said USB. If you’re looking to run it from USB all the time, you’ll need something called persistence so that files and settings get saved back to the USB. Only luck I’ve had with that is using rufus, a Windows USB burning program to put Linux/Ubuntu on the USB.
I always used to use Knoppix for a boot CD.
What kind of i/o performance difference would you expect on your average machine between running the OS from a flash drive versus a HD on a SATA port? I would assume the SATA port has better thru-put.
Most OS stuff gets loaded into memory though, so I suppose you wouldn’t need much thru-put performance anyway.
Just curious if there are any cons to running an OS off of a thumb drive.
Is secure boot disabled and did you check USB in your bios settings? That is most likely your problem being able to load from USB. Disable secure boot and enable USB your good to go.
Oh and PS. An NVME hooked up through USB3 boots fast and runs fast. Faster than a physical internal mechanical drive... substantially. Orders of magnitude in booting and probably 2 to 3 times faster just run time.
There are options out there, but those are the largest communities and you are eliminating 90% of community support/Search Engine results.
You can check out DistroWatch for options.
Check out Ventoy to be able to boot from multiple different distros on a USB stick.
I recently set up four Chromeboxes with Mint Cinnamon and it runs fast band look nice even on the small systems. Hassle free install from USB stick with UEFI boot.
“Tried Ubuntu, which was going fine until it decided to disable all its networking functions, all of its own.”
Never heard of such a thing. I have several Ububtu servers running various things. One of them has been up for 4 months with no issues.
Methinks that your networking problem is elsewhere ... or you somehow managed to fat-finger your way into single-user mode.
I think the best reviews on Linux distros is here: https://www.dedoimedo.com/computer_software.html I just tried MX Linux (tops now at https://distrowatch.com/) KDE (MX-21.2.1_KDE_x64.iso) using Rufus to create a bootable USB. I declined propriety multimedia coedcs in case they are not legal, and I do not need them, but I like the KDE DE the best.
MX 21. Debian base. THE best distro out there. You can save a snapshot of your distro with added apps and boot it with all your “stuff.” It is very nice.