Prefect for when you need it
Yes, there was a time when a computer might have USB ports but the firmware would not provide an option to boot from them. For that situation I found plop was a perfect solution. In effect, it provides and uses its own USB driver - that a BIOS might lack. While I'd usually install on the internal hard drive of such machines I also keep a copy of the ISO as a CD in my visit-and-boot toolkit.
For the UEFI era machines I consider rEFInd to be the equivalent.
I hadn't thought about the VM situation being similar. That might solve some conundrums that I've seen, but I'll have to ponder that - and perhaps look into whether it can cope with UEFI..
Biting the hand that feeds IT
