There are two things that can help you to have some fun with Linux. The first is VirtualBox . Since you are not using it for commercial purposes, you may download and install the full-featured version for your host operating system. If you are a MS Windows user curious about Linux, this is ideal for you. If you are a Linux user curious about different distros, this works as well. After you install VirtualBox on your host operating system, you need to learn how to use it. the VirtualBox site has excellent documentation . My suggestion for configuration are give the virtual machine the maximum amount of RAM and video memory that is practical and set the network choice to "bridged" rather than "NAT". Next stop is to download the NetbootCD . This CD contains enough of an OS to enable wired Ethernet connectivity and download and install several Linux distros via FTP. What can you install? Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux Fedora openSUSE Mandriva Linux Scientific
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