Watch (Youtube) Video from USB Ubuntu?

I have been looking for a way to get away from the HD and the cd rom. I know you can do an image ISO onto the USB drive, but is it possible to also watch video from the USB drive in Firefox? I found some apps that look like they might, but no go so far.

http://vdownloader.com/features.html

Is there a proxy video sight you could use OR can you somehow load Flash from a USB drive. The Flash load seems to be the sticking point.

 

I believe you're looking for "persistent storage", wherein you can save additional files to the usb image. Try this...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence

Alternatively, you may wish to consider Puppy Linux. Puppy is an Ubuntu derivate, albeit greatly slimmed down, and has a persistent USB ISO ready to go, or so I'm told.

 

Flash is a sticking point in any OS or browser

There is a YouTube plugin for Totem

Edit > Plugins

 

Thanks, Ill try to digest all of this.
I guess Im just trying to convert the USB drives into SS drives. I would be willing to D/L the youtube if thats what it takes.

Think of the power savings, no HD, no CD Rom, although its mostly in memory anyway.

Anyone run really long with just flash drives?

 

I think any Linux distro should be able to run from a USB drive and run Flash for Youtube type sites.

You definitely want to find one that allows Persistence. Persistence is just the ability to save settings/updates from one boot to the next. If you don't have persistence then each time you boot from the flash drive it is like starting fresh, same as if booting off a Live CD. Which is slower and doesn't retain updates or installations of programs or browser bookmarks, passwords etc.

If you are seriously considering running off a USB as a primary OS I would start with a full Linux distro. Something like Linux Mint (DVD version) or any distro that already has Open Office installed and basic multimedia capabilities since you will eventually need these functions anyway.

How big a thumb drive will you be using? You want to have some extra space for saving downloads.

 

Probably 8 gig, but I just found a card reader HD thing on ebay. I am just testing this out for a laptop, on my desktop, so I still have problems with loading a working linux onto a flash drive, because the Dell is so old.

 

Take a look at http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en/home or http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ to put a Linux distro on your USB thumb drive. Both work well.

From your original post, I'm not sure if you are trying to get Windows on a USB drive or are willing to try Linux. But from my experience Linux is your best bet because any Windows USB is a workaround/hacker type of thing.

I often try various Linux distros on a 4gb USB to see how they work. Almost all run fine from USB and several offer persistence. The Linux file systems only take up less than 1.4gb so there is room to save personal files.

As long as you have an empty USB thumb drive that you can experiment with, you can try several Linux distros to find one you like.

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Maybe, install Lilo Creator and test it out on a Linux Mint distro and see if it works the way you like. Once you have tried one to make sure your old Dell boots OK from the USB then you can try other distros that you might prefer.

Edit: Just to say I am most familiar with Lilo Creator but LinuxPenDrive is perfectly fine to put a distro on USB.