[sf-lug] Ubuntu on a stick

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):

> hi,

'Lo.
 
> My employer has said I am going to be able to move my work computer to
> a dual-boot Linux and Microsoft Windows.  The machine is from 2010 and
> has no CD-ROM, so I am going to have to boot off of a USB stick.

Maybe you should consider using a virtual machine setup, rather than
putting Linux on a USB stick or any other form of dual-booting (as in
rebooting to an alternate OS).

No reason why you can't and shouldn't have Linux on a USB stick too,
_but_, for a machine you actually depend on for work, it's much more
reasonable to have access to both OSes at the same time, mount volumes
from one onto the other (via Samba), and transfer text between them
using Clipboard.

Some years ago, when I was working at a large EDA firm in its Linux
Management department, I ran Debian Testing/Unstable natively on the
ThinkPad T42p they issued me, but also needed ongoing ability to use
MS-Outlook/MS-Exchange for corporate e-mail and scheduling, and MSIE to
reach a few ActiveX-dependent intranet sites, so I took care of that by
installing VMware Workstation 5.x and running XP Pro in the virtual
session.  That worked beautifully, and avoided the need to let a
Microsoft OS loose on a native machine.  These days, you also have a
number of other VM options, including VirtualBox.

The limiting factor might be RAM, if you're addicted to the more
hideously bloated Desktop Environments (**cough** Unity **cough**).

-- 
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Rick Moen                      a sign saying when they will reopen."
rick at linuxmafia.com                                     -- FakeAPStylebook
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