using Linux from a flash drive

Hi all! I would welcome your sage advice.
  My goal is to surf exclusively using Linux (Ubuntu,
Knoppix, doesn't matter to me) and to store any
downloads somewhere on a FAT32 partition I can access
later with Windows. [dual booting, Wine, and VM Ware
are not viable solutions in this case]
  It seems that buying a 1-2GB flash drive could work,
as my laptop can boot from that device.
  This leads to some questions:

  Q1: How many GB would you allocate for a minimal
Linux + Open Office + GIMP installation?
  Q2: Will the choice of device make any difference? Are
the terms "flash drive" and "jump drive" interchangeable?
  Q3: Which device brands are reliable? I've already had
a cheap flash drive die on me.

Thanks!
Karen Ciocchi

_______________________________________________
Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com
The most personalized portal on the Web!

---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
Received on Mon Aug 27 12:19:22 2007