Okay I finally got around to buying a HD enclosure and backed my many files and now want to install linux but I don't have a blank CD but I do have a 2GB usb and like I said earlier a new external HD. Any advice? Or just run out and buy a CD?

I'm running windows 10 and went ahead with the first link and got this (see pics). After I clicked close on those two windows it went ahead and installed on the usb drive. Am I okay? If installation is okay then my next question is how do I run it?

Reformat your usb as FAT32 partition and retry the process again, if Universal USB Installer asks you if you want to format choose no and see how it goes.

So for a bootable USB stick of Linux, you only really need a spare 2GB space on a USB stick?!

Might finally give it a try - that whole $5 raspberry pi computer deal thingie has me interested in branching out a little from windows etc (aside from other considertions - such as some hardware and other difficulties this year).

On an idiot stick of Nerd Perk level 0 to 10, what are we looking at?!

Okay I was clicking of the option to let them format the usb to fat32 and kept getting that error message. So I manually formatted the usb and went with the install without clicking the format and it looks like its taking..... So now what?

I'm not quite a techie and yet I find it easy to make bootable USBs using the PenDriveLinux application Ganni1987 links to above. You may be better off using bigger sticks, especially if you want to take advantage of persistence, which is available with some Linux distros such as Mint. Persistence allows you to save your changes when you run the distro off the USB stick without installing it onto your computer. Reboot your computer and boot off the USB stick.

Sold out! I'm looking into getting one as well but I need to read more about it.

Not in the UK (apparently we smell funny or summat). Its also on the cover of a magazine here - which adds about £2 (~$3 to the price, but will probably include some useful features I wont have to dig for online!).

Edit: though if I get the magaizine version I'll have to buy the plugs etc seperately).

Okay installed! Now theres this weird green box thing that follows my mouse cursor.... What is it? Also it says Running in software rendering mode, Cinnamon is currently running without video hardware acceleration and as a result you may observe much higher than normal cpu usage. Says it might be a driver. Also when I restart it doesn't restart its just a blank screen and I have to do a hard reset on it and then it boots and prompts me to select which linux type i want to run.... is that normal?

bump

Lets just pretend its actually a GOGbear tracking your every movement...

o___O

O___o

O-----O!

EVACUATE THE BUILDING!!!!

Sachys, I'd recommend using http://www.linuxliveusb.com/. You can choose from hundreds of distros that you can install on the USB and it allows you to boot directly from the USB without installing first so you can see how it works out on your system. Many have a persistent memory state that can save changes to the USB.

It also allows you to run Linux in a virtual box on your Windows system as well as install Linux on your HDD when you are ready for that big step.

Currently, I'm running Ubuntu 15 GNOME on an XP machine solely off of a USB.

It seems your graphic driver my not be working correctly. Which graphic card do you use? The black screen is definitely a driver issue as much as I know.

The boot screen with Linux types is normal. If you installed it correctly it should also have Windows 10 boot launcher listed there.

Adding to Matruchus's reply, generally new Linux installations need some tweaking.

Maybe the GPU drivers are not installed and you need to install them.
On the other hand proprietary GPU drivers are not enabled by default, even if they are installed. Type "Driver Manager" into the Cinnamon's menu search box and select the appropriate drivers if available.

For the black screen hang during shutdown, maybe your system logs could help (open "Log File Viewer" on Cinnamon).

Does the system restart/halt properly from the command line?
restart command: sudo shutdown -r 0
halt command: sudo shutdown -h 0

Also firewall on Mint is disabled by default. The easiest way to control it, is by installing a GUI (open package manager and search for gufw).