Unetbootin can download a number of popular Linux-based operating systems including Ubuntu, Fedora, or Debian and use them to create a bootable USB flash drive.

The end result is a USB stick that you can insert into pretty much any x86 based computer to boot into the Sugar environment. There are two versions of Sugar on a Stick available at the moment.

OLPC operating system free on a stick Sugar Labs, which builds the XO-1 OS for One Laptop Per Child machines, is offering it for free downloading onto any USB stick greater than 1GB.

Public PCs aren't safe, so what's a PC user to do? Carry a Linux distribution on a USB stick in their backpocket of course!

So, here’s a list of the coolest operating systems you can boot from a USB. And yes, operating systems, because there’s more than just Linux distros on this list.

Puppy Linux is a niche computing solution that shows the flexibility and usefulness of open-source tools and the staying power of the Linux operating system. Normally in this column, I focus on new ...