I've been using a CD live version of PCLinuxOS, booting off of a cd.

I assume that I can probably boot off of a usb flash drive, but I've heard that these sorts of drives have limited read/writes.

Could someone confirm if this is correct and if so, is the life span of this potential setup limited?

Thank you

Hi notrobert, There are a number distros now using flash media, pendrive, knoppix, just to name a couple. As far as lifspan goes, everything I've read says some where between 10,000 and 100,000 read/write cycles. How that'll translate for your use you'll have to decide. If it's any consolation I've been writing to one of my drives multiple times daily for about two years now with no data problems...knock on wood. ;-)
Good luck. ;-)

Thanks for your response peacedog.....I'm just curious, do you use this setup everyday, and for how many hours.

I am working remotely during the day and this is the easiest, most portable way to get into my small business network, so I'd be doing this 7 hours a day/5 days a week.

wouldn't it be easier to install linux then to run it off of a pendrive all the time?

I think you may have misunderstood me. I'm not using that setup, all of my machines have installs on them. I keep a flash drive loaded with knoppix for trouble shooting, etc. I work on other folks machines frequently and it's a handy tool to have around.

The drive I referred to in my previous post is a storage media I use for daily back ups. I transfer files from machines at work to machines at home, and vice versa. I also use it to carry portable apps around with me, and a few handy files. That said, you may well be better off doing an install rather than using a live distro. If you need windows you could always dual boot. Hope that clears this up.
Good luck. ;-)