I've seen many places sell preinstalled USB thumb drives, containing a known-good copy of Knoppix, at a price that's a few dollars over the retail price of the equivalent blank.

The preinstalled USB drives, of course, would be installed correctly the first time, pre-tested to make sure they boot, checked all sectors to make sure they are free of errors, and so on.

My question is, if you've bought or made yourself a bootable USB thumb drive, how much (if anything) you would be willing to pay for this convenience?

I'm kind of kicking myself for not going into business a few years ago, when I first wrote the "Bootable USB Key" page, and had to field so many questions from people who really wanted a bootable Knoppix USB drive but couldn't quite figure out how to make it on their own. I should have started a little side business, selling preinstalled USB drives with Knoppix ready to go.

I attached a survey to this posting. Please fill it in. If you've ever considered paying for a known-good bootable USB key, vs. making it yourself, please fill in the amount of money you were willing to pay. This is a bottom-line comparison of final retail prices (so, tax and shipping should already be included in the price comparisons). Also, assume the shipping is fairly fast, equivalent at least to US first-class mail (around two-three days for a small item like a USB thumb drive).

Thanks!

Josh