[Linux] Is it possible to boot off a USB stick with a Linux distro?

[Giuanniello]

My old 2014 MBAir sees little use and I am getting curious to try a Linux distro just for the sake of it, I would like to try normal browsing as well as photo retouch (currently an Adobe user mainly on LightRoom and some PhotoShop), is it possible to boot off a USB stick and which distribution would you suggest?

Thank you

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Absolutely possible, yes.

For someone not well versed in Linux, I usually suggest Linux Mint (Cinnamon Edition) or Ubuntu Desktop as a good "starter" distribution.

 

[TechRunner]

I used to boot Ubuntu off a USB drive regularly. I haven't done it in a few years, but assume it still works the same way.

 

[bradman83]

If you're looking to just experiment with Linux short term then a USB stick drive should be fine but one caveat to keep in mind is that the flash memory in these drives (especially cheap stick drives) are often much, much slower than the flash memory in external USB SSDs and certainly slower than the internal SSD. So the performance you get out of Linux might not be great. If you do make this a more permanent solution you may want to pick up an actual external SSD. The 2014 MacBook Air supports 5Gbps USB-3, so no need to get the fastest out there, but even an inexpensive SATA based external SSD will give you a performance boost over a stick drive.

 

[960design]

My old 2014 MBAir sees little use and I am getting curious to try a Linux distro just for the sake of it, I would like to try normal browsing as well as photo retouch (currently an Adobe user mainly on LightRoom and some PhotoShop), is it possible to boot off a USB stick and which distribution would you suggest?

Thank you

Certainly. I prefer debian. NOTE: USB sticks are inexpensive because their read/write capabilities are limited. Using as a daily OS will certainly degrade the memory stability quickly ( think, a year, if you are lucky ). The stick will fail and you will permanently lose your data at some point, be sure to have backups of important documents.