USB read speeds could be from 10MB/s to 30MB/s for relatively cheap USBs, or 50-300MB/s for USB2 or USB3 devices which may be comparable to a hard drive. Upgrading to a new release means just downloading a new ISO & making a new live USB.Ī big limitation might be the read speed of your USB drive. (There should be some tools to create a live ISO from a running live system, other distros like MX-Linux have virtually 1-click tools included). deb files 'to ram' after booting, but creating a new live USB / ISO would make the changes permanent. You can even update a few packages by installing some. Just remember to store any files you want to keep on a real partition (like a 2nd or 3rd partition of the USB) or online. This can be great for experimenting with a new OS, it's hard to permanently 'break' it. visiting the wrong website & getting malicious tracking cookies/software or messing with your web browser.giving root access to 'some helpful pal online' who breaks everything or installs questionable programs.Any accidental errors like this are also lost with a reboot:.New software sources/PPAs can be tried & packages installed (provided you have the RAM), but are lost with a reboot.
You can use a live USB as your main OS, as long as you have enough RAM (+4GB seems very usable, even 2GB should work).
