pcworld : A flash drive is one of the single most useful tools a person can own. With it you can back up critical data, transport large files, rescue a malware-infested PC, and even run an entire operating system. Regarding this last option, a while back I explained how to put Windows 8 on a flash drive. (It works with Windows 7, too.) Today, let's talk about putting Linux on a flash drive.
Why would you want to do that? Two reasons: to see how the other half lives, so to speak, and to create a rescue tool that can work around nearly any Windows-related disaster.
I installed Lubuntu on my laptop a few months ago using a 2 GB USB drive that I had lying around. It's pretty awesome.
I'm running open suse on my vaio, and apart from needing to authenticate the account every time I need to use the internet ( a bug maybe?) its been great. If it wasn't for vista dying slow death and trying to recover itself every other start up I'd never have known how fast linux was/ is.