LIve CD’s have been around for a while and are a great way to try out the many different linux distributions. I recently had to find a better linux install for an Asus eee PC, and I could have dug up a USB cdrom drive, but more convenient would be booting from a usb thumb drive. Many distributions have tools to create bootable USB’s, but not all.
Xubuntu’s wiki pointed me at this terrific tool that will create a Live-USB from any distribution. UNetbootin will even download the the iso for many of the standard distros. If the one you are interesteed in isn’t on the list, simply download the iso and use their diskimage option. As an added bonus, there’s both a windows and linux version.
A great tool to add to your toolkit!