That seems to be a very confusing article for TechRadar (usually they are better I think?), because although the title implies the USB is used with the Raspberry Pi, it might be that they are using USB to run a live copy of Linux on a PC, and then use that to create an SD card image : ( I couldn't figure it out. This bit from the intro was bizarre:
If you've never used Linux before, don't worry. These days, it's just as easy to use as any other operating system, and in many ways, it's easier. There are no drivers to chase and new applications are always installed through the Linux equivalent of an app store.
And, as you're going to be installing and using Linux on your Raspberry Pi, it makes good sense to create your SD card from within a Linux environment. It doesn't make the installation any better, but it gives you a great opportunity to try it out before plugging in your Raspberry Pi.
The first bit is not quite true, there are drivers to chase sometimes, and new apps are not always installed using (say) apt-get or whatever the sentence is implying, and the second bit isn't true either, because it may make better sense to just follow the official steps to creating the SD card image.
Is it just me, or is the article title slightly conflicting with the actual content?
I didn't have time to read through it or try it out, but I see I should have read a bit further before commenting!
I agree that the clip you quoted is confusing because that's certainly not my experience either, with Raspbian at least, maybe they are thinking of something like Ubuntu? I recall using a GUI menu to install apps on it a while back.
Yes you can do it excluding the initial boot. In the general view of the Raspberry PI architecture the Micro SD card as a matter of fact acts in the same way (and replacing it) of the flash memory in most of the Linux embedded devices. After the boot has started, you can make your Raspi to run Linux from any kind of external support, including a memory stick, a USB memory, a USB hard disk or ssd. I wrote a complete tutorial on this following step-by-step the procedure; you can find it here: Raspberry PI: USB hard disk boot
