UNetbootin

Those who are reluctant to try the Linux platform are fast running out of excuses. UNetbootin is an application for Windows, Mac and Linux that lets you install almost any Linux distribution on a removable USB device or other disk partition.

The main advantage of using UNetbootin is that you do not need a CD for some distributions, since you are able to download them from the Internet (as Wubi does with Ubuntu) and install them to the selected location.

For those distributions that are not available online, UNetbootin allows you to install them via a disk image or using a saved version of the kernel or the initrds.

Do not worry about the boot up, because UNetbootin sets up a dual boot system after installing the distribution you selected regardless of the operating system you have.