Follow-up video to https://lemmy.world/post/32690521
Spoiler alert: the main reason he says the experience “hasn’t been great” is because shortly before posting the video his Linux install mysteriously broke and he had no idea why. Therefore, he recommended dual-booting Windows just in case.
Cue sea of comments explaining that the reason for the error he was getting was that Windows screwed up his bootloader (i.e. the problem was caused by dual-booting to begin with, LOL).
You kind of can? If you want to have an OS that you will actually use (instead of just a backup to fix your actual os) on a thumb drive, buy a usb-c m.2 enclosure, put the cheapest ssd that meets your needs in there and just install windows there.
I didn’t want to commit more than a cheap flash drive. However I tried what you said since I had a m.2 enclousure laying around. I did all of this through virt-manager by passing the external device through. The installer complained when I passed the device as a usb device. I solved it by just passing device path of the external drive to the vm and the installer didn’t know any better.
I don’t see any other reason why this would not work for any usb device. usb flash drives as well. I might try this at some point.
The problem with normal fñash drives is longevity. The OS will probably wear it out pretty quickly. As an inexpensive and/or disposable solution I guess it’s fine, but it’s not reliable.