John: So my tip of the day is not to buy a Beelink.
Adam: It’s an anti-tip of the day.
Hold on a second. Even though we didn’t have official tips of the day, without a doubt, Beelink at one point would have been a tip of the day. You were telling everybody, “Oh, you got to get the Beelink. It’s great.”
John: Well, it’s a cheap little computer that works until it doesn’t.
Adam: Yes.
John: I’m still just hanging in there, but I decided I’m going to run Linux on this thing and see if I can do it. Then I said, well, I want to run live Linux.
Adam: So just stick in that USB stick and make it run.
John: If you want to run a live anything, you get the ISO, which is the…
Adam: Yeah, the image. ISO stands for something, I don’t remember what.
John: Image of the disk, yes. But you want to make it bootable. For example, I have an ISO of Linux Mint. I think it’s up to version 24 or something. It’s ridiculous. They still haven’t got any good audio stuff, which is weird. You need to get a copy of this handy product anyway. It’s called Balena Etcher.
Adam: Oh, yes. Well, anyone who has ever made a live Linux USB has a copy of Balena Etcher.
John: So that’s my tip of the day. Get a copy of Balena Etcher. It’s for USBs. It can also burn a disk, but it’s primarily for making live USBs, which is the easiest way to do it.
Adam: You can actually then take your computer with you, and wherever you are, you just say, “Hey, can I just borrow your computer?” Bam! You jack that stick in there, you change the boot order, and there’s your computer back.
John: First of all, you have to go into the guy’s system and change the boot order, which is insulting. Maybe it’s not insulting. But yes, you can do exactly what Adam said. Balena Etcher is currently the best way to make these live USB sticks. It’s called “live” because it boots from the stick. You don’t have to install it on the machine.
Adam: What is the advantage of using the live USB according to you as the tip meister?
John: That way, when you take the stick out, it goes back to the old operating system. You still have everything, all your old stuff intact.
Adam: So, what happened to your Beelink that you decided to go this way?
John: Whether it’s the Beelink itself—probably not the Beelink itself—as opposed to the SSD that is failing.
Adam: So what you’re saying, this is a tip: when your crappy old machine craps out, you can still bring it back to life with a live Linux USB.
John: Yeah, or you could run Windows off the little USB, too, if you wanted to.
Adam: Oh, no, no, no. Is there a live Windows?
John: You can make a live Windows if you want.
Adam: Whatever you do, don’t make a live Windows stick, people. Get your Balena Etcher. That’s what you want.