If you are looking for an easy way to get started learning Linux, here’s a cool idea: www.pendrivelinux.com has dozens of tutorials for installing Linux on a USB device. This is perfect for anyone who is afraid of touching their current installation by repartitioning the hard drive for dual boot. With this scenario, all you need is:

• 1GB or larger USB flash drive
• A modern enough computer that can boot from it
• An ISO image of the version of Linux to be installed
• A CD Burner/Recorder
• 7-zip (or another ISO extracting tool)

[This example requirements list was taken from the tutorial on installing Ubuntu using a Windows machine.]

One suggestion: If you find yourself starting to do serious work this way, either be sure to back up the flash drive frequently or switch from flash memory to an external hard drive device. My understanding is that flash memory wears out eventually, the more you write to it. Also, most large capacity flash memory devices have a mixture of fast and slow memory (the inexpensive ones, anyway). So, an external hard drive may actually be faster than a flash memory device.

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