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Stick protect

R

Rgarner

Android Expert
I've seen those ads for "sticks" that probably fit into USB slots and are supposed to speed up a pc, take care of viruses, etc. Are they any good? How much do they cost? Where are they sold?
 
Huh, that's what I was trying to do months ago, put Linux (Ubuntu) on a flash drive and be able to run it from there. I'm not sure if that's the kind I've seen advertised, though. I don't believe that mentioned anything about Linux instead of Windows. I guess that wouldn't be any better than just using Avast, Malware Bytes or Byte Fence, then. By the way, the pc seems to be running pretty well right now. Maybe it was just some kind of isp problem.
 
They won't be selling you Windows on a bootable USB. It's going to be a Linux OS of some sort, because I can't think of anything else it might be. It will include a web browser, file manager, media player, and probably a free office suite as well like Libre Office, basically the sort of common tools and software you might need.
 
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If I can just do it myself, I probably wouldn't spend the extra money for theirs. What are the advantages of running Ubuntu or other Linux over Windows? I read it's a lot less crashy and virusy, but I don't really know. Would it make it easier to use a pc with an Android phone if it's already Linux?
 
If you're referring to what I am thinking of, I've seen TV ads for these although it was a long time ago and not recently. Presumably there was some program that ran from the stick in Windows that would magically fix all the problems with your PC. It was aimed at the, um, "lowest common denominator" of the PC-using public and my best guess is it either didn't do anything or had a malware payload. ;)
I would not bother trying to find one of these.
 
Linux does not have viruses (Viri?). Other advantages are that most Linux distros (Distributions/flavours) will be considerably less resource intensive, a lot smaller than Windows,and run better (faster and much less 'crashy' - I've never had Linux crash the way Windows quite often does. Also, updates are always under your control, most Distros notify you of updates (Ubuntu and Mint are very good at this) and you can choose when to install them. As a family, we're completely Linux/open source. You'll find Linux is not at all scary or hard to use. most desktops follow the Win7 format. If you're new to Linux, I'd suggest starting with Mint and running it from a USB stick. There are lots of tutorials on making a bootable Linux USB stick from within Windows on YuTube, and elsewhere. Google is your friend.
 
Thanks, that's probably it. What else can you tell me about Mint? How does it compare with Ubuntu? I'm fairly familiar with that. By the way, how could Linux have absolutely no viruses? Doesn't Android have some? It would be great to do without them but I think it's really a kind of arms race. That reminds me. Avast is advertising some kind of vpn service for $1.99 per month. Does anybody on here know what it does and if it's a good deal?
 
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