I am just about to set up my new Linux machine, which will be used to convert analog video and audio to digital video and audio. Is there any reason why I shouldn’t run the system off of a live USB stick (say, a good quality one from Sandisk), that is, without installing Linux on the hard drive and not setting up a boot partition, a system partition, and all that?
Running from USB usually means it boots from USB and then is stored on your RAM. If you don’t write to the drive at all, the USB will usually be fine.
I have XigmaNAS (FreeBSD) setup like that. Works fine if the OS is really small.