I was wondering if some of you have been more seriously working or gaming from a live linux USB-stick.

I have been experimenting with a live usb key with 'MX Linux' on it and I find it superb.
A usb 3.0 key is pretty fast enough for this to work and the size of 128Gb I use is very comfortable for me.
I find it easy to be booting the stick on a different computer and just continue working where I left it at. Very handy.
Well, if you make a live linux usb drive with persistence, it's important to encrypt it and make backups all the time, in case of the possible loss of the stick.

As someone who DDs Linux, I gotta ask why you're working nomadically if you enjoy it so much? What benefit does this have over a dedicated install? (especially as USB sticks aren't meant to be longterm or heavy used.)

I have an x86/LM installation of RetroPie on an external SSD (it's a retro gaming console on the go basically, with just the SSD and a controller). I would not venture to run anything other than a live-session ISO from a stick, at least not long term.

I can agree with the other two comments, that poor USB stick will not have a very long working life if used in the way you have suggested you are. I can attest to that through my own experiences with installing Linux on a few memory cards and USB sticks (six I believe) over the course of a few years, and none of them are of any use anymore, as they have all exceeded their write limits...

Poor usb stick? (Stigmatized !)
Look,
it has the time of it's life now.... instead of spending an eternity in a dark drawer ;-)
(It got already a lot of stick time and most of the time it spent it was in a hot condition)

You guys are right, that this can't last forever. Luckily it's a inexpensive usb stick, all is not lost(yet)
It's not game over, there are a few more backups to go.
But when the time comes I'm on a external SSD , that's almost a certainty. Thanks

@WinterSnowfall

That's a cute little system for gaming. I like it.

I have a pen drive running Batocera for a couple of years now, not sure if you can call it "live" though.

MX Linux have a few interesting tools to create USB's but recently I've been contemplating the exact opposite, create a non modifiable USB pen drive with all the stuff I need. Porteus Kiosk offers just that but couldn't make it work the one time I've tried.

Edit: Changed Proteus to Porteus, silly me.

Unluckily, random write speeds on an inexpensive USB stick are abysmal. Which is where an SSD controller comes in, beside the advanced wear leveling and increased life expectancy angle. Retail external SSDs are getting cheaper these days, so no reason not to be. I actually had a spare M.2 SATA SSD lying around for the RetroPie project and just bought a tiny little metal (USB) enclosure for it. Ergo, your old laptop or internal SATA SSD can be given a new life. In case you're ever interested in what ROMs you can get on GOG for RetroPie and similar emulators, I've got you covered: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/roms_obtainable_on_gog_compendium :P

@Dark_art_
MX workbench maybe an option? There is a list of the tools installed.
But, you can modify it the way you like with the synaptic manager. (even in virtual box for example)
And when you are done, you can make a bootable stick with the mx usb creation tool. (Without live persistence)

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=66983

@WinterSnowfall
The SSD is a much better option. Any reasonably priced enclosure that works particurlarly good for usb 3.0 and up?
Thank you for pointing me to your thread.

For NVMe SSDs, Asus ROG STRIX ARION may not be the cheapest option, but with just a tiny paperclip you can open the lid and operate the screw that locks the SSD card in place, which makes it a lot more user friendly than any enclosure using multiple tiny screws and where the lid may not even be on the same side of the PCB where the M.2 slot is located.

I've had several bad experiences with NVMe over USB and can't really recommend it, but SATA over USB is a LOT more stable. Just buy whatever you can find locally and is reasonably cheap, you don't need anything exceptional beside it being USB 3.0.

Thanks, I will read some reviews here and there about different enclosures.
Meanwhile the MX-linux usb stick is still flying beautifully. *whistle*

I've often heard people talk about setting up a distro on a usb stick and it always rang false due to the issues with read write lifespan on those drives. Glad to hear others agree.

I have a Linux 19 mint live system running from the USB stick. This works, even with USB 2.0 only, very well, but of course slowly. But installing a Linux on a stick is the horror. While the live ISO file of Linux runs ready to use in 1 hour, the final installation over the system took over 10 hours. I have canceled. I think a live system as a stopgap is fine, but you can't change anything. To work it is uncomfortable.

It's good to hear what others think or experienced.
What I have done is not installing Linux on a stick like installing it on HDD.
I use the Live ISO distro of MX Linux with persistence on a stick. It is a compressed file system and it has a lot of tools.

The inexpensive usb stick works very well where ever I go and on every host pc/laptop(At friends or familiy or older devices). It boots from the stick, shows 'the desktop' and saves everything I do. It's a portable storage OS, that boots from different machines.

I agree with the advice given by many users, not use the usb sticks, but the use of another external device like SSD in an enclosure. The only thing against it would be the costs (in case of theft or other form of a loss while traveling).
For the data it is and should be encrypted as well as making backups like a regurlar habit.
I'll continue using my usb stick until it breaks, then I switch over to a cheap ssd+enclosure.
But so far for months it has been fantastic with the usb stick.