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I want to build a (very) nomad work platform and I don't want it to be on the cloud but on a USB drive. (I know I will have to create backups and/or disk images to make it USB disk failure proof.)

I am very fond of Dokuwiki on a stick as a portable notebook: it's a Dokuwiki install with a micro-Apache server, and it lets me have my research notes and papers and work on it everywere.

But I would also like to work on my LaTeX papers, on my IPython notebooks, and why not embed my IPython notebooks in my dokuwiki pages. I would then have (nearly) everything I need to work properly and make demos anywhere without bothering with configurations. And even make several USB images for several contexts.

I am then looking for a lightweight live distribution where I can easily install this environment. I know Debian more than other distributions but I'm ready to try any good alternative.

Guillaume Ansanay-Alex
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    Typically the answer to these questions is to download one, try it, rinse and repeat until you find one that works for you. – HalosGhost Aug 05 '14 at 09:00
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    Indeed. Aside from that you could give this a shot: http://www.linuxliveusb.com/. It gives a wide variety of distro-choices and allows for allocation for persistend memory. I got an archBang installation on a 32GB stick and am very happy with it. – Mark Aug 05 '14 at 09:16

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I've been using Puppy Linux for this. (Precise Puppy)

It is very USB stick friendly:

  • It loads your save file to RAM on boot.
  • It saves your data at an interval (I set it to 30 minutes) and on shutdown to your USB stick.
  • Additions are partially done via layered file systems.

This reduces the writes to your USB stick, so that it lasts longer.

YtvwlD
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