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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.
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.
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
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.
I s-t-r-o-n-g-l-y 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. (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! (Yes, it works. It works just fine ...)
Frankly: "donot '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.
Last edited by sundialsvcs; 05-18-2016 at 03:52 PM.
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
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 ..
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
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.
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recommend that you use a virtual machine. 
(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.
