Sometimes you need to use someone else’s computer. Maybe you’re at a library, maybe you’re at a friend’s house helping them troubleshoot a new device on their network. Whatever the situation, sitting down to a computer that feels completely alien is never great.
However, with just a flash drive and a Linux install, you can ensure almost every PC you encounter is as comfortable as your own.
Why I made my own portable Linux install
Three main things drove me to carry a portable Linux distro in my pocket: comfort, security, and troubleshooting.
Your own operating system is comfortable and secure
After a while, your own PC starts to feel familiar, a bit like a well-worn pair of shoes. Suddenly, switching to a random PC in a café or a library—or worse, someone else’s home PC—just feels wrong.
However, if you put a portable Linux installation on a flash drive, you can carry your own operating system with you wherever you go. Most of the time it is as simple as telling the computer to boot from the USB drive rather than the internal storage drive.
Realistically, disabling the ability to boot from an external USB is a prudent security practice, and you may find some PCs have it locked behind a password.
You don’t need to worry about whether an app will be set up how you like, if you’ll have your bookmarks or the programs you like.
An even bigger perk is security. You really have no idea how diligent someone is about their security, and public PCs are potentially even worse—they could be malware magnets. If you’re going to enter any kind of sensitive information on a PC you don’t control, booting off an external SSD or a USB drive dramatically reduces your risk, since nothing you enter will ever be exposed to the hard drive on the computer.
So long as everything you do goes out over an encrypted connection (which you can guarantee with a VPN if you want to be ultra cautious), the odds of a security breach are exceptionally low. Knowing that whatever sensitive information I enter isn’t at risk makes me much more comfortable while using another person’s PC.
As an added perk, Linux performs well on almost any hardware.
It makes troubleshooting easier
I’m frequently in the position where I need to help friends and family troubleshoot their computers.
Of course, as is very often the case, it is sometimes hard to work out exactly what is wrong without spending a few hours chasing down unhelpful Windows error codes. Booting to Linux, even if you do absolutely nothing else, can help you narrow it down immediately. If the PC keeps crashing (or whatever the issue is), then you can be pretty sure that you have a BIOS firmware or hardware issue.
If Linux plugs along happily, you can be confident that the issue is with Windows, a driver, or some software installed on Windows. Rarely, it may also clue you in that there is a problem with the storage drive, but a quick drive health check can usually rule that out.
It also gives you the answer to a pressing troubleshooting question: Will reinstalling Windows fix the issue? If the Linux drive works without issue, reinstalling Windows will probably work.
It also gives me something I can instantly fall back on if my main PC’s boot drive dies unexpectedly.
A portable Linux installation is fast and responsive
It used to be that flash drives were slow enough that booting from them was a bit painful compared to internal storage, but some modern flash drives can reach speeds up to around 1 gigabit per second.
For context, most SATA SSDs run at about half that speed.
The trick is just to pick up a flash drive that can operate that fast. I’d also recommend something that has both USB-C and USB A on it, so you can be sure it can connect to any desktop or laptop out there.
9/10
- Capacity
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256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB
- Speed
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1000MB/s read, 800MB/s write
- Connection
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USB-C/A
The PNY Duo Link V3 flash drive offers both USB-C and USB-A plugs. With USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds, you can expect up to 1,000MB/s read and 800MB/s write speeds from this flash drive. Coming in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB storage sizes, this all-metal flash drive makes it easy to bring large amounts of fast storage with you anywhere.
You don’t need to buy something special though. I’ve been using a relatively inexpensive Samsung flash drive that I had on hand for years without an issue. Eventually, when I replace it, I will look for something with both USB-C and USB type A, however.
Setting up a portable Linux installation
Setting up a portable Linux install is easier than ever now. If you’re on Windows, download and install Rufus. During the setup process, just adjust the slider to set how much storage you’d like your portable Linux OS to have. That allows you to store files, install apps, and apply any other kind of customization when you use the drive.
If you’re on Linux, you can use a utility like mkusb to create a Linux USB with persistent storage, which only requires a few short lines in the Terminal to get working.
What Linux distro should you use for a portable installation?
Linux users love to argue about which distro is best and which distro is best for any given situation, but in this case, the “best” option is very simple: It is the one you like the most. I keep Kubuntu on a flash drive because I’m a big fan of the KDE suite of apps and I like the Plasma desktop environment.
Installing Linux on a flash drive is a great way to ensure that you always have access to your own files and apps when you’re out and about, but it does have some limitations. Despite improvements to flash drives, they’re still much slower than an NVMe drive in an external enclosure. They’re also not rated for the same kind of high-volume, prolonged read-write cycles like an SSD is.
If you’re just using your portable Linux install for occasional troubleshooting, or when you’re not sure about the security of a system, then a flash drive is fine. However, if you intend to use the portable Linux installation as a daily driver, I’d definitely look into buying or making an external SSD instead—it’ll get you better performance and will probably be more reliable over the long term.