An OS on a stick is a bootable operating system that runs on a flash drive. Most people have laptops and tablets, but these require batteries and power and take up a lot of space. During a flood, fire, or other catastrophe you may not have immediate access to power to charge a low device. Additionally batteries fail and computers can become outdated. An OS on a stick doesn’t have batteries, and doesn’t need updates necessarily. While it won’t solve all of your issues, it’s another tool that can be useful. Let’s dive in!
Potential Uses
#1 Privacy
When you install an operating system like Tails, a Linux based operating system on a flash drive, there is no persistent storage. Cookies, trackers, browser histories are all wiped clean when you reboot. This allows you to use a public computer like you may run into in an emergency at an evacuation center, safely for things like banking, email, or paying bills. Some people use these devices to dodge surveillance in places that are not permissive to free speech. Others use it to share information securely, (Edward Snowden used Tails on a stick), or to search for information about embarrassing health topics or legally gray areas like 3d printed firearms. If you have room on a keychain you can have your system that you can use on any computer.
In a situation where you’ve had to evacuate, another person may have a laptop but may not be comfortable with allowing you to use their file system for these things, but if you only have access to your drive, they may be willing to let you use their hardware.
Another aspect is you may want to keep your data air-gapped from your other PCs or away from prying eyes. By enabling persistent storage on your thumbdrive you can save files, passwords, browser settings etc and keep it hidden away in case your ex-wife or the Feds shows up. There’s a lot of info we have that is private that we may not want sitting on a PC with access to the internet, even something as routine as your medical records, tax returns, or the financial records for the gambling operation you run out of a back booth at the local Mexican “restaurante”.
#2 Device Hijacking
In other situations, if things are not so friendly, for example in an open war zone like people in Ukraine recently found themselves in, you may come across abandoned hardware in need of re-appropriation. For example, while combing through the husk of a shelled office building or burned out neighborhood.
Most people have passwords on their devices. If you try to boot up a recovered PC or laptop, most likely you will be locked out of it by the password screen. Rather than trying to brute force the laptop password you can use an OS thumb-drive to commandeer the hardware.
#3 Time Proofing Your Computing Resources
A Linux based operating systems exist in many forms and configurations. Some versions can run on extremely old hardware to give a user basic computing ability like doing calculation, reading reference material, searching through a database or browsing the web or making notes. Old tablets, phones, apple and windows devices need constant updates and after their service life are essentially bricked. A thumb-drive running a minimalist operating system can make use hardware that can’t run modern operating systems. As computers and systems evolve, PCs and phones have become ever more dependent on cloud based resources. For this reason, keeping an old tablet or laptop in a bug-out bag is impractical. A linux OS on a stick gives a person a backup system should they find themselves in a situation where they require basic functionality and have limited hardware. You know for doing basic stuff like reading notes, using spread sheets or a calculator, or taking notes.
# 4 experimentation
You may want to try out linux without wiping your windows device. You may want to use different versions, try different apps, or open risky files without risking your primary pc.
Reminders:
It’s important to remember operating systems and pc components are updated and advance regularly, so no operating system on a drive will last forever and you’ll need to refresh it from time to time with a new copy of the OS. Probably at least 1x per year. Long Term Releases are meant to last for a period pf about 5 years.
It’s possible that a previous Administrator of a re-appropriated laptop disabled booting from a thumb-drive for security reasons or that there is no electricity to power any PC you can find to plug the OS into. Having a drive in your bag that can be used in this manner is just one tool. It’s also a good idea to make sure you can bring a tablet or a laptop, a power bank and ideally a slim solar panel if you need to evacuate or shelter in place for an extended period of time. However a device like this may be a target for theft and could attract attention depending on how scarce resources have become. You could think of this as a stop gap if things get really dicey.
How to make one:
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