The Quiet OS

Not to mention compact

from WinCustomize Forums
Does anyone have the skinny on a good operating system for PC that runs exclusively from ram or from a flash disk? This could be great for my laptop because battery time is precious, and craptastic when that harddrive gets-a-movin'.
38,921 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Damn-Small-Linux http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/usb.html
Jafo recommends this one a lot. Haven't tried it myself yet.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I lean on the cheap side, so buying a 128mb boot drive when I have a 256 key at home makes no sense to me. I have heard that there are ways to roll your own usb boot from live cd distros. Anything on that?
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Uhm, maybe I'm missing something, but if it will fit on a 128MB drive, don't you think it might fit on one twice that size?
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
 Citizen Shotgun989 ...DSL fits on a mini CD....max size 50 meg....I have it on a standard CD...cost...about 30 cents....can't get much cheaper/easier than that...
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Size is no problem for me. I have no worries about this thing fitting. The booting is the part that worries me. I have used DSL from CD and it works fine. But being the nerd that I am, being able to have that little USB bootable Linux just makes my day. I have heard that the process involves loading the kernel on to the disk and then making it some files to boot from. Noobed again.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I would have thought that getting a system to boot from a USB source just requires that to be set in preferences in your Bios....otherwise the hardware will attempt to boot from your primary HD anyway.

Booting from a CD requires that set as first preference ahead of 'C'....the same will apply with an USB device....

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
damn small linux is awsome! i run it from a cd, can't find where it says anything about flash disks in my bios.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It won't say "Flash Drive". Depending on your BIOS it may say "USB Device" or "External Device" Set that as the first boot device and you should be good to go.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'll give that a whack. Who know? It might just work.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I forgot to mention, i found an awsome os that fits on a single floppy! it is called menuetOS. i just can't set it up properly, google it to find it.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
U can put DSL on a flash drive by going into the menu and going into apps, and then you have to snoop around to find an option to put it on a flash drive. but you first have to mount your drive as writable.