portable linux?
 

I got to thinking, if i were able to fit linux on a thumbdrive, would i be able to have it as a bootable operating system?

Sure, provided the computer was able to boot from a USB device. With some computers, if they don't have that option then setting it to boot from SCSI will often have the desired effect. There are boot floppies around that load USB drivers and then chainload the USB device also :)

awesome, any idea where i might find one of these boot floppies and/or suggestions as to a version of linux that i could have a decent gui and a few applications and have be between 500-750 megs?

Knoppix might be good, any live CD will work as either a CD or on a USB drive, it's all the same principle. I can't actually find a link to one of those floppies at the moment but I've seen them when I was Googling this subject ages ago. I might have just tried a different search string, you know how picky search engines can be ;)