João has been covering the tech world for over 7 years, with a heavy focus on laptops and the Windows ecosystem. I also love all things tech and videogames, especially Nintendo, which he's always happy to talk about.
Prior to joining XDA in 2021, he worked at Neowin: https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/jo%C3%A3o-carrasqueira/
Linux is great at many things, and one of the big benefits it has over Windows is how it can easily give you a usable PC without having to actually install anything. Any live USB for a Linux distro can boot up your computer and give you something usable, including a web browser and the ability to install at least some apps.
There is a limitation to that, though, as your personal data usually gets deleted whenever you turn off your PC. After all, the main purpose of a live USB is still to install the OS or rescue a system. Thankfully, there are also ways to get a full operating system with persistent data if you want it, and I did exactly that. And it's better than you're probably thinking.
Getting started with my portable desktop
I took the easy route
The idea of data persistence on live USB drives is not new on Linux, and many distros let you create a setup with persistent data natively. Tails is one of the easier options, and I've even tried it before, but not all your data is saved across sessions, and that's a problem with a lot of these approaches. Usually, they let you save certain kinds of data, but you don't get the continuous desktop experience you expect with a normal PC.
To make that happen, I took the easy way out, which actually requires two USB drives. A smaller that I used as a typical live USB for installation, and another one that's the target of my installation. This second one is a 128GB portable SSD enclosure, but you can make it a standard flash drive, too, which is far cheaper.
With this setup, it's very easy to get started. Boot from the live USB with your distro of choice (almost anything should work), set your other USB drive as the installation target, and go through the setup process as you normally would. In my case, I used Fedora KDE Plasma Workstation, though it was mostly because it was an ISO I already has on my PC and it was better than Ubuntu.
It's just like a normal computer
I barely notice a difference
Running an operating system off of a portable SSD naturally comes with some performance penalties. Read and write speeds are going to be slower than a built-in SSD, so bandwidth-heavy workflows may suffer. But while some parts may feel a little slower, using this as a normal PC feels almost exactly as it should.
I've set it up like I would set up any PC I need to work on: install Vivaldi and OnlyOffice via Flatpak, along with the Vicinae launcher and Discord to keep in touch with some friends. I browsed the web, logged into my websites, and even did some writing for XDA, and all that data persisted across reboots. I was able to get back into websites I logged into before with no issues, and my apps were always there.
Performance-wise, I noticed some things can be slower than I would like, but it's never been an impediment to doing most of my work. Booting up may take an extra second, launching an app here and there isn't quite fully responsive, but it's never far from what I would normally expect. I even tried using Photopea to edit some images, and it performed admirably, so it can handle some mildly intensive workloads. Of course, I wouldn't recommend this for high-end gaming, but if you just want a desktop that's made more portable, this works completely fine.
Any PC can be my desktop
Portable, to an extent
The best part about this setup is that I can really use it on any computer I want, and never have to worry about affecting that main PC. All my data is on the USB drive by default, so I can plug it into any computer, launch my apps, download files, and install programs, and never leave a trace on the computer I'm using. It makes it a great way to borrow a computer without actually messing with anyone's data, or dealing with annoying restrictions because it's not my user account.
Linux also makes this easier because, at least for basic use, all the drivers you really need are there by default. Unlike Windows, which can present a bit more weirdly without dedicated graphics driers, I can run this on a new PC with barely any issues when it comes to basic use. I created this portable desktop on an Intel PC with integrated graphics, but it worked just as well on my AMD-powered laptop with an Nvidia GPU. I then hopped over to a different Intel PC with a newer GPU, and things kept on chugging.
At one point, I even installed updates on one PC, turned it off, and booted it back up on another computer where the updates finished installing. I was worried something might break, but it was all fine.
If you need specific workflows to be accelerated, though, you may need some additional packages. For example, I don't have OpenCL drivers for any of these GPUs out of the box, so I need to install them. And if I want to access OpenCL on any PC, I need to install the respective drivers. But again, this only really matters for specific workloads, such as using a graphics editing app or a video editing program like DaVinci Resolve.
An SSD is recommended
A typical flash drive may not be suited for this
The biggest downside with this setup is that you'll be hammering your USB drive pretty hard if you're using it as the centerpiece of your desktop. A typical flash drive is generally perceived to be of lower quality compared to an SSD for various reasons. SSDs have much more robust controllers with a lot of features that help improve performance, and perhaps more importantly, longevity.
Using a standard USB drive to regularly read and write data means that USB drive could be dead within a few years, while portable SSDs are likely to last much longer. That's why you can find a 128GB flash drive in the $20 price range, while a reputable SSD of the same size will get you at least into the $40 range. It's a bigger investment, but it may be worth it if you want to depend on this setup in the long run.
Cheaper flash drives are also likely to use the USB 2.0 standard, which gives you very slow speeds for running an operating system, though models with USB 3.2 speeds do exist. Still, the flash memory and controller on these drives is generally much less performant than that of a proper SSD, even though the underlying technology is usually the same. SSDs may also have DRAM to help accelerate data reads and writes.
My desktop goes where I go
It's not often that I need to get work done on a new PC, but whenever I do get caught off guard, it's frustrating to have to take the time to log into my accounts or install the software I need for a particular task, especially knowing that it's going to be filling up someone else's PC. A setup like this allows me to be ready to go at any time, on any computer, and if I'm borrowing said computer, the owner doesn't have to worry about me messing with their files. It's a lifesaver, and I recommend setting one up if you find yourself in situations like this often.