Linux Use ubuntu just from a USB?

I'd like to use ubuntu as a secondary operating system, but without actually installing it to a hard drive; i'd like to just use it from a large USB drive without affecting any of my windows drives. Is this possible?

 

Thanks. Is it possible to make a bootable drive that you can save things to, like bookmarks, documents etc?

 

Yes. You need to enable "persistent mode" when creating the drive.

 

Ah, okay; thanks.

 

You can also install ubuntu straight to a USB stick - that's what I did.

Functions just like a (slower) normal installation.

 

If the USB if big and fast enough, that's the best option. I don't really carry it any more, but through uni school and uni I had a USB stick that had a full Puppy install on it that was useful when I hit ancient, slow, virus-ridden pcs.