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eric335

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2012
Messages
266
Hey,

I plan on building a custom SFF rig with a custom-made chassis with hardware from handy-down PCs (my father owns a business that runs through computers pretty fast, and he usually throws them away, so now im adopting them all :p ). The only problem is that i REALLY dont want to pay 100$ for Windows 7 for every rig i throw together. Ive always heard Linux is free, but ive never used it, and im not sure how id load Linux..

So,
Is Linux easy to adapt to? And if so, could i load it onto a USB stick or could i burn it onto a CD and then load it via an optical drive?

If not, is there a free version of Windows i could get? Like XP or older? Could i re-use my Windows 7 Pro and just not authorize it?


Thanks for the suggestions!
Eric
 
Linux is free and pretty easy to install. Just find a district you like and throw it on your computers.
 
http://linuxmint.com/

Go get it. Burn it to a disk. Install.

There will be some learning curve, because you haven't use it before. But, it's easy enough. The harder part is getting use to new applications, if you're not already using cross-platform applications such as Firefox.
 
Linux Mint and other Ubuntu derivatives are designed to be point-and-click. Mainly, you'll just have to adapt to different names for things and learn where to click.
 
lloose said:
Linux is free and pretty easy to install. Just find a district you like and throw it on your computers.
Click to expand...

Stone Cold said:
http://linuxmint.com/

Go get it. Burn it to a disk. Install.

There will be some learning curve, because you haven't use it before. But, it's easy enough. The harder part is getting use to new applications, if you're not already using cross-platform applications such as Firefox.
Click to expand...

Skripka said:
Linux Mint and other Ubuntu derivatives are designed to be point-and-click. Mainly, you'll just have to adapt to different names for things and learn where to click.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the advice guys! The builds are more for the challenge and to be a project, so Linux will do just fine. Ive used Firefox for like 3 years, so i guess ill be fine as far as that goes.

As far as "districts" and "derivatives", is that basically the same as the different versions of the firmware (like ICS, JB, HC for Android)? Is Mint the Jelly Bean of Linux?
 
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eric335 said:
Thanks for the advice guys! The builds are more for the challenge and to be a project, so Linux will do just fine. Ive used Firefox for like 3 years, so i guess ill be fine as far as that goes.

As far as "districts" and "derivatives", is that basically the same as the different versions of the firmware (like ICS, JB, HC for Android)? Is Mint the Jelly Bean of Linux?
Click to expand...

I've never seen the word "districts" used. "Distributions" or "distros" for short is the most common word.

Think of them like flavors of ice cream. All have the same basic stuff but how they're done and what you do as a user are slightly different. In theory one linux can be configured and made to function like any other at least visually. For a lay user the largest differences are the update cycle (how often a new version in released), the package manager, and the installed theme and defaults.

Mint is in most folks opines the easiest to get going and use out of the box. Ubuntu inherits the Debian fascist mentality when it comes to non-free software and codecs like DVDs and Flash....most people don't give two shits about "free" or "non-free", they just want to watch their damn movie, and not dick around at a command line installing libdvdcss etc to watch their DVD library of Friends. Whereas Mint takes the pragmatic approach of most codecs coming with the install.
 
eric335 said:
As far as "districts" and "derivatives", is that basically the same as the different versions of the firmware (like ICS, JB, HC for Android)? Is Mint the Jelly Bean of Linux?
Click to expand...

Mint is one of the most popular distributions (variations) of Linux. (The other post should have used the word "distributions" not "districts")

There is no Linux equivalent to Jelly Bean. Somthing I fault Linux for is that, unlike Android, there isn't one official official Linux version. This is the biggest factor holding back Linux. There is only one official Linux kernel (the core of the operating system). The result is numerous Linux operating systems that look and feel different, and that aren't completely compatible with each other. This is confusing to new users and why it's stupid for someone to say "Find a district(sic) you like."

Mint is very up to date. Ubuntu is another popular choice, and also very up to date. Ubuntu uses a different user interface, one that's slightly less Windows-like than Mint's interface.
 
Skripka said:
I've never seen the word "districts" used. "Distributions" or "distros" for short is the most common word.

Think of them like flavors of ice cream. All have the same basic stuff but how they're done and what you do as a user are slightly different. In theory one linux can be configured and made to function like any other at least visually. For a lay user the largest differences are the update cycle (how often a new version in released), the package manager, and the installed theme and defaults.

Mint is in most folks opines the easiest to get going and use out of the box. Ubuntu inherits the Debian fascist mentality when it comes to non-free software and codecs like DVDs and Flash....most people don't give two shits about "free" or "non-free", they just want to watch their damn movie, and not dick around at a command line installing libdvdcss etc to watch their DVD library of Friends. Whereas Mint takes the pragmatic approach of most codecs coming with the install.
Click to expand...

Stone Cold said:
Mint is one of the most popular distributions (variations) of Linux. (The other post should have used the word "distributions" not "districts")

There is no Linux equivalent to Jelly Bean. Somthing I fault Linux for is that, unlike Android, there isn't one official official Linux version. This is the biggest factor holding back Linux. There is only one official Linux kernel (the core of the operating system). The result is numerous Linux operating systems that look and feel different, and that aren't completely compatible with each other. This is confusing to new users and why it's stupid for someone to say "Find a district(sic) you like."

Mint is very up to date. Ubuntu is another popular choice, and also very up to date. Ubuntu uses a different user interface, one that's slightly less Windows-like than Mint's interface.
Click to expand...

So from what you guys are saying, my best bet is to try out Mint? The system wont get too much usage anyways, so i guess i could try a couple versions of Linux and see what i like best. Ubuntu and Mint are the most popular?
 
Mint or Ubuntu sound good. Some of it is going to come down to preference too. Unlike Windows, there are quite a variety of different shells / desktop environments / window managers available. And on this point, there is a bit of "upheaval" if you will in the desktop space as a variety of new ideas are being tried (kinda like Metro with Windows).

Of course you can use different desktop environments on different distros, so I think the big key when choosing a distro is relative ease of install and package management. This is where I think Ubuntu (and Mint, which is an Ubuntu derivative so picks up the same pros) really do well and polish up the user experience.

Note that in my experience Ubuntu 12.04 has had a lot of regressions over previous versions, that are currently being ironed out. But the community is really great if you ever need help, so don't be afraid to dig in and learn. ;)
 
Will do! I watched a couple youtube videos on Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon that looked good. What does the Cinnamon part mean?
 
eric335 said:
Will do! I watched a couple youtube videos on Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon that looked good. What does the Cinnamon part mean?
Click to expand...

As I indicated earlier, I wish there were a official Linux operating system, instead of just an official Linux core (kernel).

A "distro" is the result of someone taking the Linux core and building a full operating system on top of it. Part of this process is adding a User Interface, which is the screen you see when you use the computer (e.g. Metro on Windows 8). Cinnamon is a name of the User Interface used by Mint. Mint can also be downloaded with several other User Interfaces. These variations are called Editions. Mint recommends that confused newbies use the MATE edition.

MATE and Cinnamon are very similar. Cinnamon is more advanced, but has rougher edges. Mint will let you switch between interfaces (at boot).
 
Sweet, ill start with MATE or Cinamon and try it out! I should be done with this mock-up build by this coming Wednesday or so. Ill load up Linux onto a CD and run it on there (if i can save the existing windows, which i doubt i will).

What im doing is taking apart a couple old PCs and hopefully building a test-bench out of em. Im gana scrap the case and make a little mock-up test-bed. Ill start a thread in the SFF or General section when i do :D
 
Here's a good overview of some of the desktop environments used in Linux and how they compare.

http://www.renewablepcs.com/about-linux/kde-gnome-or-xfce

I just loaded up Mint 13 with the MATE desktop. It is OK but I think I preferred the KDE desktop I had used before with Mint 9. KDE uses more resources than MATE but unless you have really low power machines that doesn't really matter.

You can also create a bootable USB flash drive and load up several different Linux distros on it and then boot them up and try them out to see which ones you like. Am spending part of Labor Day weekend doing that very thing!
 
eric335 said:
Sweet, ill start with MATE or Cinamon and try it out! I should be done with this mock-up build by this coming Wednesday or so. Ill load up Linux onto a CD and run it on there (if i can save the existing windows, which i doubt i will).

What im doing is taking apart a couple old PCs and hopefully building a test-bench out of em. Im gana scrap the case and make a little mock-up test-bed. Ill start a thread in the SFF or General section when i do :D
Click to expand...

The "live CD" can be run without doing anything to your Windows installation. It will run a bit slower due to read times than a full install but it will give you a feel for what Linux is all about. Just set the bios to boot from CD and you're off and running. The distros will run faster if you load them on a bootable flash drive if you have one to spare--4 or 8 gigs is plenty big.
 
Stone Cold said:
Mint is one of the most popular distributions (variations) of Linux. (The other post should have used the word "distributions" not "districts")

There is no Linux equivalent to Jelly Bean. Somthing I fault Linux for is that, unlike Android, there isn't one official official Linux version. This is the biggest factor holding back Linux. There is only one official Linux kernel (the core of the operating system). The result is numerous Linux operating systems that look and feel different, and that aren't completely compatible with each other. This is confusing to new users and why it's stupid for someone to say "Find a district(sic) you like."

Mint is very up to date. Ubuntu is another popular choice, and also very up to date. Ubuntu uses a different user interface, one that's slightly less Windows-like than Mint's interface.
Click to expand...

Slackware would pretty much be as close to an "official" GNU/Linux version as you can get. It's basically nothing but vanilla components.

I wouldn't, however, recommend it for the OP as the manual dependency resolution and CLI-only interface would most likely send a novice running the other direction.

Will do! I watched a couple youtube videos on Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon that looked good. What does the Cinnamon part mean?
Click to expand...

Cinnamon is a desktop environment. One of the stranger concepts to Windows users who are just entering the world of Unix (including clones such as GNU/Linux) is that Unix systems are highly modular; the Unix philosophy of programming tends to favor small, simple, programs that do one thing and one thing only and work in tandem with other programs.

A desktop environment is a collection of programs that provides a complete working and integrated GUI environment for your computer. It contains things like the taskbar, the file manager, the "desktop" program (the program that provides a desktop that you can put icons on and have desktop wallpaper), and so on.

In Windows, the desktop environment is built-in and welded into the operating system. In GNU/Linux, it is not and so you have a choice of different environments (although typically the newbie-friendly distros such as Ubuntu and Mint are very heavily integrated with whatever desktop environment they happen to come with so as to make things as easy for the new user as possible).

There are five major desktop environments in the GNU/Linux world and lots of smaller ones :

1.GNOME. This is the most widely used desktop environment and focuses on user friendliness. In general, GNOME tends to follow the Apple/Mac philosophy of interface design; it prefers ease of use to configurability and "power user" features.

2.KDE. This is the second most widely used desktop environment. It tends to cater more towards "power users" while still attempting to remain accessible to the novice and follows a more Windows-like school of program design; favoring larger, more complex, programs with lots of built-in features.

3.XFCE. This is a lightweight desktop environment that provides the bare essentials needed for a desktop environment without all the bloat. It tends to follow the UNIX school of program design, favoring highly modular, interconnected programs.

4.Cinnamon. This is a fork (a fork is when someone takes a free/opensource program and makes their own version of it) of GNOME which attempts to provide a more "Windows-like" interface.

5.Unity. This is Ubuntu's desktop environment.
 
tordogs said:
Here's a good overview of some of the desktop environments used in Linux and how they compare.

http://www.renewablepcs.com/about-linux/kde-gnome-or-xfce

I just loaded up Mint 13 with the MATE desktop. It is OK but I think I preferred the KDE desktop I had used before with Mint 9. KDE uses more resources than MATE but unless you have really low power machines that doesn't really matter.

You can also create a bootable USB flash drive and load up several different Linux distros on it and then boot them up and try them out to see which ones you like. Am spending part of Labor Day weekend doing that very thing!
Click to expand...

Ill keep that in mind about the bootable USB flashdrive, i got a spare 8GB laying around.

tordogs said:
The "live CD" can be run without doing anything to your Windows installation. It will run a bit slower due to read times than a full install but it will give you a feel for what Linux is all about. Just set the bios to boot from CD and you're off and running. The distros will run faster if you load them on a bootable flash drive if you have one to spare--4 or 8 gigs is plenty big.
Click to expand...
Read my last reply. Will use the flashdrive! I think i might wipe off windows from this build just to have Linux machine to mess with. Is Linux less resource-intensive than Windows? These builds will not have great hardware, so i want them to be the least strapped down as possible.

damicatz said:
Slackware would pretty much be as close to an "official" GNU/Linux version as you can get. It's basically nothing but vanilla components.

I wouldn't, however, recommend it for the OP as the manual dependency resolution and CLI-only interface would most likely send a novice running the other direction.



Cinnamon is a desktop environment. One of the stranger concepts to Windows users who are just entering the world of Unix (including clones such as GNU/Linux) is that Unix systems are highly modular; the Unix philosophy of programming tends to favor small, simple, programs that do one thing and one thing only and work in tandem with other programs.

A desktop environment is a collection of programs that provides a complete working and integrated GUI environment for your computer. It contains things like the taskbar, the file manager, the "desktop" program (the program that provides a desktop that you can put icons on and have desktop wallpaper), and so on.

In Windows, the desktop environment is built-in and welded into the operating system. In GNU/Linux, it is not and so you have a choice of different environments (although typically the newbie-friendly distros such as Ubuntu and Mint are very heavily integrated with whatever desktop environment they happen to come with so as to make things as easy for the new user as possible).

There are five major desktop environments in the GNU/Linux world and lots of smaller ones :

1.GNOME. This is the most widely used desktop environment and focuses on user friendliness. In general, GNOME tends to follow the Apple/Mac philosophy of interface design; it prefers ease of use to configurability and "power user" features.

2.KDE. This is the second most widely used desktop environment. It tends to cater more towards "power users" while still attempting to remain accessible to the novice and follows a more Windows-like school of program design; favoring larger, more complex, programs with lots of built-in features.

3.XFCE. This is a lightweight desktop environment that provides the bare essentials needed for a desktop environment without all the bloat. It tends to follow the UNIX school of program design, favoring highly modular, interconnected programs.

4.Cinnamon. This is a fork (a fork is when someone takes a free/opensource program and makes their own version of it) of GNOME which attempts to provide a more "Windows-like" interface.

5.Unity. This is Ubuntu's desktop environment.
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the explanation. Im gana re-read this reply a few times, go watch some youtube videos, and then test out my top couple environments. Now, as far as a booteable USB stick, could i upload more than one version of Linux to one stick and try them all out? Would i have to select in the BIOS which ISO to boot from? Would 8GB hold more than one?

Eric

EDIT:
Wow, this is really a great read, thank you! www.renewablepcs.com/about-linux/kde-gnome-or-xfce
This is informative and confusing at the same time. So, these are all based upon what common-core architecture? I see it like this:

Linux OS -> ???? ->Desktop Environment (Like GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE) -> Skins (Cinnamon, Mate, Unity, etc)
 
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Linux distros don't use many resources at all; they can run on a netbook or just about anything else. Don't take up much space or use a lot of memory. I'm no authority but I guess you could say their common-core architecture is Unix.

This application installs and runs pretty easily.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

It has lots of options and a link to show you which distros it will load (you'll have to go to each distro website to download the ISO and save it somewhere). The ISOs are very small--like 700 MB and use 200-300 MB of memory so several could fit on an 8 gig flash drive. Only problem using the flash drive is that not all MB support booting from USB--the machines you are putting together might not which means you would need to burn "Live CDs" to boot from. You can also do that from this site I believe. Of course you'll need a working Windows (or Linux) system to do this stuff.
 
tordogs said:
Linux distros don't use many resources at all; they can run on a netbook or just about anything else. Don't take up much space or use a lot of memory. I'm no authority but I guess you could say their common-core architecture is Unix.

This application installs and runs pretty easily.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

It has lots of options and a link to show you which distros it will load (you'll have to go to each distro website to download the ISO and save it somewhere). The ISOs are very small--like 700 MB and use 200-300 MB of memory so several could fit on an 8 gig flash drive. Only problem using the flash drive is that not all MB support booting from USB--the machines you are putting together might not which means you would need to burn "Live CDs" to boot from. You can also do that from this site I believe. Of course you'll need a working Windows (or Linux) system to do this stuff.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help and info, when it comes time to loading up an OS on this build, ill refer back to this. If the bootable USB stick doesnt work, ill use a "Live CD" and might need some more help from you guys and Google. The MBs on this build is going to be ripped out of some 5 year old Dell, so no telling what it can/cant do... Im going to cherry-pick the best out of both of the PCs im tearing apart to build up one machine to run Linux. The PCs were bought around the same time, so i think they *should* be the same chipset and socket type....
 
You don't say in your system specs, but if you are running Windows 7, you can just download the distro ISO and Windows 7 will burn it for you to make the live CD--you could even try it just now for fun--it doesn't take but a few minutes. Linux Mint 13 with MATE desktop or Ubuntu 12.04 are a couple you could try on the machine you are using to post these comments. I keep a couple distros around just to play with when I get bored of Windows.

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
 
tordogs said:
You don't say in your system specs, but if you are running Windows 7, you can just download the distro ISO and Windows 7 will burn it for you to make the live CD--you could even try it just now for fun--it doesn't take but a few minutes. Linux Mint 13 with MATE desktop or Ubuntu 12.04 are a couple you could try on the machine you are using to post these comments. I keep a couple distros around just to play with when I get bored of Windows.

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
Click to expand...

Oh im running Windows 7 Pro on this machine. I might try that tomorrow if i get the chance, that way im somewhat acclimated for when i start setting up this new rig.

In the UEFI BIOS, i just change the boot order to the USB stick right?
 
Yeah, just enter the bios and set USB as first boot priority (or DVD/CD if you are using a Live CD). You really might want to just burn the ISO to a CD/DVD and use the Live CD method to boot from for now. It is quicker to do and Windows will do the work for you without having to install any other programs. Takes about 10 minutes to download an ISO and about 5 to burn the ISO file to DVD/CD and you're ready to try Linux. You can save the ISO file and put it on a flash drive later if you want to go that route. Just remember to reset your HD/SSD back to first boot after using the Live CD. Curious to know if you try it and what you think of Linux.

Also, when you do make the CD or flash drive of Linux and boot it up, it will take a bit (maybe 30-40 seconds) for it to show up. You'll get a prompt about installing it--don't do that--just tell it you want to try out Linux or something like that; each distro has different options/wordings. Then it will go on with the booting process. You don't want to install it and mess up your Windows system--you are just taking it for a test drive.
 
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tordogs said:
Yeah, just enter the bios and set USB as first boot priority (or DVD/CD if you are using a Live CD). You really might want to just burn the ISO to a CD/DVD and use the Live CD method to boot from for now. It is quicker to do and Windows will do the work for you without having to install any other programs. Takes about 10 minutes to download an ISO and about 5 to burn the ISO file to DVD/CD and you're ready to try Linux. You can save the ISO file and put it on a flash drive later if you want to go that route. Just remember to reset your HD/SSD back to first boot after using the Live CD. Curious to know if you try it and what you think of Linux.

Also, when you do make the CD or flash drive of Linux and boot it up, it will take a bit (maybe 30-40 seconds) for it to show up. You'll get a prompt about installing it--don't do that--just tell it you want to try out Linux or something like that; each distro has different options/wordings. Then it will go on with the booting process. You don't want to install it and mess up your Windows system--you are just taking it for a test drive.
Click to expand...

Will do (probably tomorrow...er...later today..... unless im busy, since its 2 AM now). As far as burning the ISO to a DVD, do i just literally burn it to the DVD? Is there a special software i need to use to make it a "Live CD" or something? Thats the part that is confusing me.

Thanks for the info and the steps, i will do this tomoro! What Linux should i start with? I really cant decide :D it seems MATE is popular, but idk what to use hahaha. Maybe ill burn several different ISOs and try that (Cinnamon, MATE, and.....???).

This will be a good test-drive before i load it up onto its own system!
 
Actually Windows 7 will burn ISO files to the DVD for you--a new feature in this version of Windows. When you download the ISO and open it, Windows gives a pop-up about "do you want to burn this ISO image to DVD?" or some such. Just put the DVD into the tray and let Windows do the rest. It will burn the image then verify the image and then it is just ready to use to boot from. Really quite simple. Older versions of Windows required additional software to burn ISO image files. I have used Linux Mint 9 with KDE desktop and Linux Mint 13 with MATE desktop--they are nice. Also put Ubuntu on a flash drive a couple days ago--it is probably a simpler distro but didn't have quite as many bells and whistles pre-installed as Mint does. I'd say just pick one and do it--take 15 minutes of your life and a DVD. Then you'll have the Live CD/DVD in case your built-up systems won't allow for USB booting. Post back somewhere after you've done the deed.

For what it's worth, Windows 8 is finally allowing for a Live USB option but, being Windows, it is not nearly as simple to create as Linux. Am considering building up a bootable flash with Windows 8 on it if I have time over the long weekend and give 8 a test drive without fouling up the 7 install.
 
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All the CD-DVDs i have at my house are 700MB, while the ISOs are close to 900MB :(
 
eric335 said:
This is informative and confusing at the same time. So, these are all based upon what common-core architecture? I see it like this:

Linux OS -> ???? ->Desktop Environment (Like GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE) -> Skins (Cinnamon, Mate, Unity, etc)
Click to expand...

Let me see if I can confuse you more:

Linux kernel -> Display Manager (lightdm, gdm, kdm, etc.) -> X Display Server (currently Xorg only on desktops) -> Desktop Environment (GNOME3, GNOME2, KDE, etc.) -> Window Manager (compiz, KWin, mutter, metacity, etc.) and Shell (Unity, GNOME Shell, Cinnamon, MATE, etc.) -> Theme (Adwaita for GNOME Shell, Ambiance / Radiance for Unity, etc.).

So at boot the kernel loads and then after important devices are brought up the boot proceeds to launch startup programs. For a desktop OS that has a nice user interface, this means kicking off a Display Manager. The responsibility of the Display Manager is to launch the X Server and initiate a user session (which will display a login screen typically). The Display Manager can initiate multiple user sessions, both for local and remote logins.

The X Server is implemented using a client / server architecture and its purpose is to connect applications (X clients) with the GPU through the video driver. Applications (clients) can be local or remote. Conversely, a local client can connect to a remote X Server. In practice this means that you can run an application like Thunderbird on a remote machine but have it display on your local machine. Since Xorg is cross-platform for most UNIX-like operating systems (BSD, Linux, Solaris, OS X), you can generally take advantage of the client / server model without requiring both machines to be the same OS.

The Desktop Environment is the heart of the desktop experience and is highly configurable. E.g., Unity, GNOME Shell and Cinnamon are all based on the GNOME3 Desktop Environment, despite looking radically different. MATE is based on GNOME2, etc.

The Shells are an implementation of the Desktop Environment and generally present the look and feel.

The Window Managers handle the behaviors of the windows (X Clients) and user interactions such as minimize, maximize, moving windows and switching workspaces. Most of the modern ones like compiz are actually OpenGL applications to provide 3D and other special effects such as transparency and shadows. In compiz, the user is free to choose which effects are used and when they're used.

Even with all this, there is still a lot of configuration of the Desktop Environment / Shell left up to the user: these are called Themes in GNOME-based DEs. E.g., the appearance (colors, icons, fonts, etc.) can be configured in the system settings. Tweakers are able to really get in and change the engines to dramatically alter the look, and may provide the themes as install packages. E.g., this person changed the default backgrounds to add transparency and added gloss to the title bar: http://i1-linux.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/All-Swar-Black-Base-Theme_3.png

So there is quite a bit of configuration permitted to the user if he so chooses to personalize his desktop. :)

Now on something like Android, you'll have the Linux kernel going right into Google's own stack of display software, generally based around OpenGL ES (or EGL, the subset of OpenGL functions for Embedded Systems). Linux has no dependency on anything after the ->, and doesn't require it at all (as seen on headless servers).
 
eric335 said:
All the CD-DVDs i have at my house are 700MB, while the ISOs are close to 900MB :(
Click to expand...

True the CD will hold only about 700MB which might work for some of the distros but a DVD will hold almost 5 gigs! Plenty of room--do you have any DVDs on hand? Just run down to the store and pick up a few and use those. They'll hold the distro with room to spare. Not much difference in price I think for CD or DVD.

Or, if you don't have any money for DVDs just run this program and go ahead and put the distro on the USB drive you have on hand. Fairly easy if you follow the instructions. You can download the distro before you start or it will give you the option to download while running the tool. Save anything on the flash drive you need as it will have to be formatted before putting the live distro on it I think.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Just some numbers so's you know. The Ubuntu 12.04 ISO I downloaded was 694 MB; burned it to USB flash drive and it was 1.68 gig but I created a 1GB persistence file--not necessary--just to store things if needed--so it was about 680 MB after burning. Don't recall the size of the Linux Mint 13 ISO file but burned it to LiveDVD and it was about 889 MB out of the 4.7 GB available on the DVD. As you can see, Linux doesn't take up much room compared to Windows installs.
 
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tordogs said:
True the CD will hold only about 700MB which might work for some of the distros but a DVD will hold almost 5 gigs! Plenty of room--do you have any DVDs on hand? Just run down to the store and pick up a few and use those. They'll hold the distro with room to spare. Not much difference in price I think for CD or DVD.

Or, if you don't have any money for DVDs just run this program and go ahead and put the distro on the USB drive you have on hand. Fairly easy if you follow the instructions. You can download the distro before you start or it will give you the option to download while running the tool. Save anything on the flash drive you need as it will have to be formatted before putting the live distro on it I think.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Just some numbers so's you know. The Ubuntu 12.04 ISO I downloaded was 694 MB; burned it to USB flash drive and it was 1.68 gig but I created a 1GB persistence file--not necessary--just to store things if needed--so it was about 680 MB after burning. Don't recall the size of the Linux Mint 13 ISO file but burned it to LiveDVD and it was about 889 MB out of the 4.7 GB available on the DVD. As you can see, Linux doesn't take up much room compared to Windows installs.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the help!

Im flashing my Linux 13 Mate to my USB stick as i type this. The computers in my computer lab at school dont have a BIOS password, so im just gana play with Linux 13 Mate tomorrow at school :D I ended up creating a 1GB persistent file as well. How does this file work? Is it things that i download when using Linux on a computer?
 
Glad you are finally getting the Live USB stick made. Been watching the posts to see your progress. I have only used the Casper file on Ubuntu so not sure how it reacts on Mint. Just some space to save changes (like desktop changes, icon moves, programs) that will stay with you when you open another "Live" session and not be lost when you close out the current session. You might or might not use it at all or care to. Some say the stick doesn't run quite as fast with the persistence file included on it. No nerve to boot the thing into your big system? Guess that's what school computers are for--it is a lab after all, isn't it!

@ Druneau--UNetbootin is indeed another good tool for burning Linux distros, among other things.
 
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