Are there recommended sources where I can purchase a flash drive (USB) that can load a copy of Linux, Cimmamon, or Ubuntu on an older Intel quad powered desktop with 6 gigs of ram?

Any old flash drive with enough space can do this. It doesn't have to be a special flash drive. And most any modern computer can be configured to boot off of usb. Just take a cheap flash drive and install it yourself.

nd7rmn8 said any flash drive will work, and he's correct, here is how to do it from windows.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...ick-on-windows

Buy a good usb drive, it will make life better. Put the distro of your choice on it. Shutdown the computer, put in the usb drive, turn it on and get into bios, usually "del" key. Make sure boot options has usb boot set and ideally move your usb to the first choice and prepare to be amazed.

I haven't bought anything from these folks but they have supported distrowatch for a long time. They sell usb drives for a bunch of distros.

https://www.osdisc.com/products/usb


Welcome to linux!

Good point, especially if you are using this on a daily basis. Usually when I install linux on a flash drive, it isnt for daily use, not worth the money if im only going to use it once in a while, which is why I suggested getting a cheap one. You can check online for reviews of faster flash drives. If you are looking for good online stores for computer parts and such, Newegg is pretty good.

You might also want to consider getting a low profile one if you have a laptop, so you don't accidentally knock it out.

Hello and welcome to LQ.

Not sure any old flash drive will work but nearly all of the current ones should work. A good quality 16G should suite must home users needs.

Most new computers along with new versions of linux use a flash drive just like it was a real hard drive. You only need to be careful when installing to a usb. To avoid damage to current OS, just remove power from any internal hard drives or use a virtual machine to install an OS to a usb.

There are some places that sell a usb with linux on it too.

Any flash drive you have will work for a Debian net install. Even a 256MB flash drive will hold the netinstall image, which you then use to install Debian to the hard drive of the computer you plan to use. It doesn't take much to get started, since almost everything is downloaded from the interwebtubez.

there are some issues with booting some USB3 drives , but i have not had any issues with USB2 drives
other than a usb2 drive is DEAD SLOW to run a os on