What do you think of the idea of selling flash drives already prepared to boot Puppy Linux on PCs? (I still need to see if I can boot on Macs using online instructions I've found.) I know it's not too hard to prep your own flash drive, even if you have to buy one first, but just think about why this could be marketable.

First of all, advantages of booting from a flash drive include extreme portability for your "computer", having as many "computer" setups as your flash drive can store, non-invasive and (mostly) no-hassle dual-booting, longer memory lifetime compared to live cd, ability to boot on a computer without a cd drive, and ability to run on a computer whose main operating system has crashed or is ruined (or not installed).

Second of all, reasons why Puppy seems to me to be the optimal live usb distro include wide hardware compatibility, ability to run completely in 128MB or less of RAM (making old computers or ones without functioning hard drives usable, and any computer run faster, quieter, and cooler), its completeness yet user-friendliness, and the ease and depth of extensibility and community support (unlike other distros that run RAM-only from a flash drive, and even compares with major distros like Ubuntu).

As to why one might want a flash drive already prepped, there are many variants of Puppy Linux built for different purposes, and many different ways to format flash drives. And puppy drives wouldn't just be for people who are already informed and curious but scared to prep a flash drive themselves. Even though I can prep my own quite easily now, I had trouble at first. These could make great gifts, or save time otherwise spent prepping. Selling Puppy drives could also be a service, where one preps it how the customer wants it.

Maybe I'm just gushing about Puppy Linux on live usb, which I've recently been experimenting with and coincidentally had two genuine needs for already, but I still think this is an interesting idea. What do you think? Would there be a market? Also, SD card+reader vs. plain usb flash drive?

Puppy, as well as numerous other Linux distributions, are currently available on flash drives at several web sites. If you go to distrowatch, you can see the links for osdisc.com and linuxcd.org which sell CD/DVD/Flash drives with various Linux distributions. I'm sure there are other sites. I've seen various Linux distributions for sale on Ebay also. I expect these are the standard installation media without any customization.

I guess either customization or specialization would be a necessity to justify another distributor, then.