re usbs

[westcliffe]

could one run a operating system from 4 gb usb

[vehelpfulguy]

Even if it could be done, the speed of data transfer from a USB device to computer memory would be too slow to make it workable I think.

[Llamatron]

There are some distros of Linux for USB memory sticks.
A great way of carrying around a toolkit for fixing or examining a broken OS.

[rojash]

You can buy Ubuntu Linux on a bootable 2Gbyte memory stick for about 30 quid. You can run it from the stick, and even carry all your settings and customisations around with you.

Get it here:

http://www.dragontechnology.com/ubuntu_usb.php

As the kernel is loaded into RAM at bootup, there is no speed penalty to speak of.