Which distro to select
 

I have 20 PC's. They are running Windows 7.
Sometime I need to do something that Windows does not have by default i.e. grep, sort, find or etc ... not a heavy stuff but just convenient that I use when on Unix.
I want to create a bootable USB with 'Live' Linux which would allow me to boot any PC into Linux, mount Windows and then do grep and etc.
My question: which is the most light-weighted distro you'd recommend that fit my needs, I see Debian Live, Linux Mint, Lubuntu and etc.
What would you suggest?
Thanks

I wonder if perhaps this might not be the way you want to go. You might want to think about one of two things that come to mind for doing this sort of thing:

1. Install a VM that does this. Then when you need it, you fire up the VM, mount the windows filesystem, and do what you need to do.
2. Install cygwin, which has all of the tools that you are looking for, and also has the inherent capability to view your filesystem.

Actually, cygwin is probably the better choice for what you are trying to do here.

As a note, Windows 10 is going to be having some sort of bash shell capability in the future, at least as far as the Microsoft announcements I have seen.

Try them all and decide which you like best. IMHO if you are wanting to just run a "live" from USB stick, i'd probably go with puppy.

Thanks for reply but I'm looking for the most 'light-weighted' case :)
I mean I'll rarely use it ... maybe even never hence I don't want to keep VM, cygwin or etc on each of PC.
I want to have it on USB and use only when I need.

2nd that, been years since I used cygwin. You can install it in windows and use the commands you are used to.

What you want is SystemRescue. You get a minimal Linux plus a set of rescue and repair tools that have saved my bacon on a few occasions. Put it on a USB stick and you won't regret it!
http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage

chaletOS...

:hattip:

Which distro to select
 

I'd give a try with AlienBob's slacklive shipping xfce. Fit's on 1G, is percistency-able (with encrypted container if you need), and, most of all, it's slackware.

Perhaps:

Simplicity Linux
Puppy Linux

I s-t-r-o-n-g-l-y :tisk: recommend that you use a virtual machine.

Specifically: download VirtualBox, a free(!) virtual-machine monitor ... backed by none other than Oracle Corporation ... which runs on everything.

Now, you can safely "run Linux," without screwing anything up. :D (And, by the way, you can do so efficiently.) You can "snapshot" the system at any time and restore it from the snapshot. You can have as many VM's as you want.

One day, you might even to decide to flip the table over: to use Linux as the native operating system of your machine, and to host Windows in ... a window! :D (Yes, it works. It works just fine ...)

Frankly: "do not 'dual boot.'" IMHO, that's a thoroughly-antiquated concept by now. Virtualization is that good ... yes, even when Microsoft Windows is the host. Today, you do not need to put a host-system at any sort of risk in order to run other "guest" operating systems efficiently(!) on the same hardware.

Well ... this one likely will fit my need ... although thanks for other replies as well ... but this one will give me the light version plus some utilities.
I already created USB thumbdrive and tried. Looks great.
One more question related to SystemRescueCD: what you 'typically' use it for? I am going to run some 'unix-like' commands again Windows like grep, find and etc .. But what are you using it for?
Thanks again ..

Which distro to select
 

It's used to recover a system, repair disks or access to files while the system will not boot. Others are full linux systems on a thumb drive.

It's all explained at the System Rescue home page, link below.

https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/Sys...cueCd_Homepage

Hi.

I just posted my opinions: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...op-4175580026/

have fun! :)

Have you tried to install Cygwin in Windows?

If you have it installed I believe you can do grep, sort or find and if you know PowerShell you can do that also but you need PowerShell to be installed on your Windows system.

But of course Linux comes in handy for such stuff. If you don't have any applications that is preventing you to switch over then by all means go for Linux.

Good luck!!