Does anybody know of a list of usb live-bootable distros, with links to the download pages?
I have a coworker who wants to switch his gaming computer over to Linux, he has Linux experience but from like a decade ago.
He’s not partial to any particular distro, so I was hoping to just put together a multiboot flash drive with a bunch of live images he could try. But I’m not sure what I should include, and what has live images, vs. install only images.
I’m most comfortable in an environment with apt, so Debian and Mint are of course already covered, but if the gaming-specific distros have live usb images, that would probably be the best thing for him to try.
I think a better option than live boot is VM. Live boot doesn’t always save settings, and you may not get a full-install experience, since certain things are set up after install.
For gaming try:
This is the most accurate answer. I have found Nobara to be everything I could ask for gaming.
I might add that, if he also wants a normal desktop experience, separate from gaming, he should consider trying Zorin or Mint.
Iirc, Zorin comes with nvidia/amd drivers already installed and the experience is close enough to Windows that he might stay on Linux.
This is just for him to get a basic feel for the various distros, before choosing one to permanently install; setting up a VM properly is probably going to be too technical
And that’s exactly my point. You aren’t going to get a basic feel by booting a live USB. Better for him to try out the update mechanisms, install a few programs, and maybe test some theming from within a VM.
Plus, some of the ones I listed don’t have live environments but would be great choices for gaming distros and better than some of the ones that do have live environments. You’d be limiting your options by having this unnecessary requirement.