A portable operating system is one which is compatible with multiple hardware platforms and also can be carried easily on a physical drive. Most of the portable OSs are lightweight and carry in a CD or USB drive. Running an OS from a CD/ USB drive is termed using live CD/USB. Even though the portable OS is lightweight, the performance is not to be underestimated and most of them are open-source with strong community support. There is nothing wrong to keep one Portable OS as part of your System First Aid; they can boot from USB, retrieve your data and convert your dead PC to alive.
The Linux operating system is often considered the third of the holy triumvirate of PC platforms, along with Windows and MacOS. Linux could be best described as the most rebellious of the three.
We listed the best portable Linux OS Distro that can carry in a USB drive and boot on any desktop or laptop.
Puppy Linux
Puppy Linux is an ultra-small Linux OS has a user-friendly UI. Despite being small it has readily available partitioning and file recovery tools packed with this portable Linux. This Linux Distro is suitable for basic computing and web browsing. Puppy Linux is highly customizable, different customized versions called “puplets” are available. Each puplets offers unique features or support. There are puplets such as non-English puplets, special function puplets, etc.
Puppy can save session data in separate files. This Linux distro includes its own package manager, which makes installing additional applications easy. The configuration tools allow the user to tweak the system’s setting. After all the tweaking, customizing and installing additional applications a user can turn the by-product into their Linux distro using the remastering tool.
Key Features: Size – 100MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – JWM | Customizable | Download from Website
Related: 14 Best Lightweight OS for Old Laptop & Netbook
Slax
Slax is a user-friendly Linux distro. The standard version of Slax is small as 210MB, and fast Linux Distro. The size of this portable Linux is dependent on the user, and this distro is modular. The benefit of modular distro concept is the user can add or subtract modules before downloading the OS. If one does not require office software, they can delete it before downloading, or add the multimedia tool if they wish.
This Linux distro is packed inside a single directory /Slax/. Slax Linux Distro is available in both 32bit and 64 bit. For old computers, the 32-bit version is advisable, whereas 64-bit version is best suited for modern models of computers. If one does not require office software, they can delete it before downloading, or add the multimedia tool if they wish. This Linux distro is packed inside a single directory /Slax/. Slax Linux Distro is available in both 32bit and 64 bit. For old computers, the 32-bit version is advisable, whereas 64-bit version is best suited for modern models of computers.
Key Features: Size – 210MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – KDE | Modular | Download from Website
Related: 10 Best Linux Server Distributions for your Business & Home
BackTrack (Kali Linux)
BackTrack is not light nor the heaviest OS. For a portable OS, it is a little bit heavy with the size of 2GB. But the 300+ apps readily available are enough to justify this extra size. This Linux distro is considered as Hacker favorite, meant for security testing. Kali OS can be used for wireless hacking, server exploiting, web-app assessing and so on. Although BackTrack Linux does contain a few graphical toolsIf, this Linux Distro is good for command line experts.
BackTrack is serious about anonymity. Users do not have to register any names, bank accounts or user accounts as part of obtaining ISO image. There is no reporting back to any vendor by any spyware. Ncrack is a tool in this particular distro which assists the user in identifying user accounts with weak passwords with no need for logging into each host. It must be noted that all the facility offered by Kali Linux distro is to be used legally only. It must be noted that BackTrack project is continued as Kali Linux.
Key Features: Size – 2GB | RAM – 512MB | Window Manager – GNOME, KDE | Security testing | Download from Website
Damn Small Linux
As the name implies, Damn Small Linux is very small. It is of only 50MB. The small size does not mean it is underpowered; it runs surprisingly fast even on low-powered hardware. Damn Small Linux packs many applications such as Firefox, VNC viewer, file manager, instant messenger, and even a web server. Thus DSL is capable of performing browsing web, write documents, manage files, play music, manipulate images and all other things a basic computer does.
This Portable Linux Distro can function as a server (SSH/FTP/HTTPD) right off on a live CD/ USB drive. DSL is based on yet another Linux distro called Knoppix. Hence applications from that distro can also be run in DSL.
Key Features: Size – 50MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – Fluxbox, JWM | Download from Website
Porteus Linux
This particular Linux distro is of less than 300MB. Porteus is available in both 32 bit and 64 bit. Similar to Slax, Porteus is also modular. Precompiled modules can be activated or deactivated before downloading this Linux distro. The user can select default software and select applications such as browser, office, etc. Even Skype can be set as a default application. The user has the provision to select the drivers they wish. Finally, the user can customize the system password and boot behavior of the OS.
Key Features: Size – 300MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – KDE | Modular | Download from Website
Tiny Core Linux
Being 10MB this Linux distro is the smallest of the portable OS. This is also the lowest RAM demanding OS. One of the downsides of being so small is that it packs no applications, no file manager or so. These can be later installed by users though. Since it does not have anything unwanted out of the box, Tiny Core Linux is fast and responsive. Tiny Core is not void though; it has a window manager, custom tools, and a terminal.
Key Features: Size – 106MB (tiny Core Plus) | RAM – 48MB | Window Manager – KDE | Download from Website
Related: Top 7 Free Operating Systems For Laptop or Netbook.
FatDog64
FatDog64 is a 64 bit multiuser Linux distro and a derivative of Puppy Linux. Many applications are included out of the box. Since it packs more application than Puppy Linux, it is heavier than the same but is not the heaviest of all.
FatDog packs applications like Libre Office and GIMP. There are also other lightweight applications for image editing, note taking, and other various tasks. There is room for some entertainment in FatDog64 since it packs some games. It has a save file persistent feature which ask the user to save any changes. This feature makes sure that the system changes made by the user stay unchanged while future uses.
Key Features: Size – 350MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – JWM | Download from Website
Knoppix
Knoppix is a well established and stable Linux distro. This Knoppix portable OS was one of the first live CD distros to get popularity. It packs more than 1000 software packages. The browsers such as Chromium, Firefox/Ice weasel are available. For office package Libre office is available. Tools for data rescue and system repair are parts of this distro. There are many distros derived from Knoppix. Adriane Knoppix, Damn Small Linux, and Kali Linux are some of them.
Key Features: Size – 700MB | RAM – 128MB | Window Manager – KDE | Download from Website
MX Linux
MX Linux is based on antiX and MEPIS and is intended to work efficiently on both older and modern PC. It features a tweaked version of the lightweight Xfce desktop. This means you can customize it all you want although MX Linux is designed to be beginner-friendly by default. MX Linux is powerful but also light enough to smoothly run from a USB stick.
Key features: Size – 1.5GB | RAM – 512MB | Windows Manager – Xfce 4 | Download from Website
Ubuntu GamePack
If it wasn’t already clear from the name, Ubuntu GamePack is based on Ubuntu. It was created to provide Linux users a chance to play more than 28000 game titles otherwise developed for Windows or Mac. Ubuntu GamePack ships with pre-installed delivery systems for Internet games, game clients like Lutris and Steam, and programs like WINE and Plays on Linux to help run Windows programs.
Key features: Size – 2.6GB | RAM – 2GB | Window Manager – Compiz | Download from Website
SliTaz
SliTaz is a simple, high-performance GNU/Linux based operating system that aims to deliver a fast, beginner-friendly, and highly customizable Linux distribution. The name SliTaz stands for Simple, Light, Incredible, Temporary Autonomous Zone. SliTaz’s total Live CD/DVD size is merely 35MB to 50MB which makes it a great choice if you’re planning on running it from a USB. It’s definitely one of the smallest Linux distros with a fully functional graphical user interface. As it set out to be, it’s also highly customizable letting you even change desktop effects.
Key features: Size – 8MB to 43MB | RAM – 192GB GUI, 16MB to 48MB CLI | Window Manager – Joe’s window manager| Download from Website
Best Portable Linux Distro
The portable OS can perform basic computing and more with extraordinary power. Portable Linux Distributions are used for system recovery, hardware compatibility testing and so on. Hence community support and long-term support is at hand, and portable OSs are independent of the hard disk of the system. They run on the RAM and hence are faster than the most mainstream OS. The only speed limiting factor of these Live OSs are the speed of your USB drive/CD.
The Portable Linux distros are no less than any commercial operating systems in terms of features and driver support. The above-mentioned distros seem to outperform conventional operating systems in many scenarios. They can perform a specific task such as system recovery, penetration testing and so on, which most of the other OS fails to perform. Linux distro does all these and still manage to be light enough to be carried on a USB flash drive.
Privacy and security have become increasing concerns for internet users, not least with increased government monitoring and corporate collection of user data, and a long string of well-publicized hack attacked in which this user data has been stolen and mis-used.
While Windows and macOS machines have some protections in place, and there are additional options such as using a VPN or Tor browser, a number of Linux distros are now available that put privacy and security at their core.
- This is our best antivirus buying guide
For some of these Linux distros it's a case of building in privacy protection by default using a variety of tools. For others, it's a matter of including security software as standard for those who need to do penetration testing.
Each of these distros has a different focus on privacy and/or security according to user interests and needs. Here we'll list the best 10 for you to consider.
1. Qubes OS
An extremely secure OS but for advanced users only
Risky apps are confined to separate virtual machines
Can be tricky to set up and manage
While definitely not for novice users, Qubes is one of the top privacy-conscious distros. The graphical installer must be used to install the OS to your hard drive, which will be encrypted.
Qubes OS uses the Xen Hypervisor to run a number of virtual machines, compartmentalising your life into ‘personal’, ‘work’, ‘internet’ and so on for the sake of security. This means if you accidentally download malware on your work machine for instance, your personal files won’t be compromised.
The main desktop uses colour-coded windows to show different virtual machines, making it easy for you to tell them apart.
2. Tails
All connections routed through Tor network
Limited default set of applications
Tails (which stands for ‘The Amnesiac Incognito Live System’) is probably the most well-known privacy-focused distro. It can be run from a DVD in Live mode whereby it loads entirely into your system RAM and will leave no trace of its activity. The OS can also be used in ‘persistent’ mode where your settings can be stored on an encrypted USB stick.
All connections are routed through the anonymity network Tor, which conceals your location. The applications in Tails have also been carefully selected to enhance your privacy – for example, there’s the KeePassX password manager and Paperkey, a command line tool used to export OpenPGP secret keys to print on paper. There are also a small number of productivity apps such as Mozilla Thunderbird and the powerful LibreOffice suite.
You can install more applications from Debian repositories via the command line, but they will take some time to download as they pass through the Tor network.
Do note that vulnerabilities are constantly discovered with Tails so be sure to check for updates (as you should do with any OS, of course).
3. BlackArch Linux
Boasts a huge range of pen-testing and hacking tools
Constantly updated
This pen-testing distro is based on Arch Linux, which may be good or bad news depending on how familiar you are with its parent operating system. While relatively new, this OS contains over 2,000 different hacking tools, saving you the trouble of having to download what you need each time.
The BlackArch distro is constantly updated, with new ISO images being released on a quarterly basis. These are very large in size (currently 11GB) due to the amount of pre-installed programs, but note that there's also a much smaller Netinstall version which is only around 620MB.
BlackArch can be run live from a USB stick or CD, or installed onto a computer or virtual machine. It can even be installed onto a Raspberry Pi to give you a portable pen-testing computer that you can carry anywhere.
The ‘anti-forensics’ category is particularly worth mentioning as it contains tools to scan your memory for passwords to encrypted devices. This helps protect your machine from a ‘cold boot’ attack.
4. Kali
Industry-standard pen-testing distro
Hundreds of built-in pen-testing tools
Named after the Hindu goddess, Kali is one of the oldest and most well-known pen-testing Linux distros. The Kali download page offers ISOs that are updated weekly, which can be run in live mode or installed to a drive. Kali will also happily run on ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi.
Kali’s reputation is so formidable that its creators offer training through the Kali Linux Dojo. Lessons include customising your own Kali Linux ISO and learning the fundamentals of pen-testing. For those unable to attend the training, all educational resources from the classes are available on Kali’s website free of charge.
Anyone interested in a career in Information Security can also take on Kali's paid penetration testing courses which take place online and are self-paced. There's a 24-hour certification exam which if passed will make you a qualified penetration tester.
5. IprediaOS
Stay under the radar via the anonymous I2P network
I2P connections generally faster than Tor
IprediaOS is a privacy-oriented operating system based on Fedora Linux and can be run in Live mode or installed to your hard drive. Just as Tails OS routes all your connections through the Tor network to anonymise your connection, Ipredia routes all your network traffic through the anonymous I2P network.
This is known as 'garlic routing', a process whereby I2P establishes one-directional encrypted tunnels to protect your data. This is theoretically much safer than Tor's 'onion routing' which transmits data over established 'circuits', meaning they can be targeted for surveillance.
Features include anonymous email, BitTorrent client, and the ability to browse eepsites (special domains with the extension .i2p). Unlike Tor, I2P doesn’t act as a gateway to the normal internet, so Ipredia cannot safely access regular websites.
The advantage of only accessing eepsites is that your connection is truly untraceable. As I2P is designed specifically for 'hidden' services, connection and download speeds are generally much faster than routing through Tor as TAILS does.
6. Whonix
Harness the power of virtual machines to stay safe online
Many privacy-specific apps preinstalled
VM performance isn’t as fast as local installation
Booting a Live operating system is a nuisance as you have to restart your machine, while installing it to a hard drive means there’s a risk of it being compromised. Whonix offers an elegant compromise by being designed to work as a virtual machine inside the free program Virtualbox.
Whonix is split into two parts. The first ‘Gateway’ routes all connections to the Tor network for the second ‘Workstation’ part. This hugely reduces the chance of DNS leaks which can be used to monitor what websites you visit.
The OS has a number of privacy-conscious features. These include bundled apps such as the Tor Browser and Tox instant messenger.
As it runs in a virtual machine, Whonix is compatible with all operating systems that can run Virtualbox. Virtual machines can only use a portion of your real system's resources, so Whonix will not necessarily perform as fast as an OS that has been installed to a local hard drive.
7. Discreete Linux
Keep your data secret by storing it offline with this distro
Can store settings in an encrypted area
This intentionally misspelled distro is the successor to the awesome Ubuntu Privacy Remix. Discreete OS contains no support for network hardware or internal hard drives, so all data is stored offline in RAM or on a USB stick. It can be run in Live mode, but when booting from a volume also allows you to store some of your settings in an encrypted ‘Cryptobox’.
Another clever feature is that kernel modules can only be installed if they’ve been digitally signed by the Discreete Linux team. This prevents hackers from trying to sneak in malware. Note that this operating system is currently in the beta testing stage.
8. Parrot Security OS
Another distro bristling with pen-testing utilities
Large range of pen-testing tools
This Parrot Security distro comes to us from the Italian team Frozenbox. Like Kali and BlackArch it categorises tools for easy access and even has a section for the ones you most commonly use.
Parrot is based on Debian 10 (Buster), the testing branch of this OS, so you might encounter stability issues. However, note that Parrot has much more colourful backgrounds and menus than its parent OS. As such, its hardware requirements are rather more demanding than other pen-testing distros such as Kali.
A minimum of 4GB of RAM is recommended. If you don't have the RAM to spare, you can go with the 'Lite' edition of Parrot Security OS and choose to install and run only the programs you need.
For those with minimal resources, Parrot Cloud is a special version of the distro specifically designed to run on a server. It has no graphics but does contain a number of networking and forensic tools to allow you to run tests remotely. For those on a very tight budget, there is even an experimental version available for the Raspberry Pi.
9. Subgraph OS
As recommended by Edward Snowden…
Vulnerable apps run in their own sandbox
Subgraph OS is based on Debian Linux and is designed for ultra-tight security. The kernel has been hardened with a number of security enhancements, and Subgraph also creates virtual ‘sandboxes’ around risky applications like web browsers.
A specialised firewall also routes all outgoing connections through the anonymous Tor network. Each application has to be manually approved by the user to connect to the network, and to access other applications’ sandboxes.
In April 2017 Joanna Rutkowska, the creator of Qubes, together with security researcher Micah Lee, were able to circumvent Subgraph's security by running a malicious app in the Nautilus file manager, which isn't sandboxed.
This attack would also work on other privacy-oriented distros such as Tails. The Subgraph team has yet to develop a patch for this exploit, but have pointed out that the OS is still in the alpha stage of development.
This distro is designed to be installed on a hard drive. Encryption of your file system is mandatory, meaning there’s no danger of writing unencrypted data anywhere. As mentioned, Subgraph is still in its testing phase so do not rely on it to protect any truly sensitive data (and as always, keep regular backups).
10. TENS
NSA approved and lightning fast
Setup is extremely easy
Our tenth offering is, rather aptly, TENS (Trusted End Node Security). Formerly known as LPS (Lightweight Portable Security), this Linux distro has been designed by none other than the US Air Force and is NSA approved [PDF].
The public version of TENS is specifically designed to be run in Live mode, meaning that any malware is removed on shutdown. It includes a minimal set of applications but there is also a ‘Public Deluxe’ version which comes with Adobe Reader and LibreOffice. All versions include a customisable firewall, and it’s also worth noting that this operating system supports logging in via Smart Card.
- You can download TENS here (if you have issues downloading the ISO from the official site, check here for support)