Skipping audio, slower servers, everyone knows the symptoms of latency. But to know what's going on in the system, what's causing the latency, how to fix it... that's a hard question without good answers right now
UNetbootin allows for the installation of various Linux/BSD distributions to a partition or USB drive, so it's no different from a standard install, only it doesn't need a CD. It can create a dual-boot install, or replace the existing OS entirely.