As iam a newbie to linux. And really do not what to expect. I just got my self a copy of Knoppix 3.9. It works execellent on my system. And it should on yours to. An execellent way getting to know linux and to learn what linux really can do for you. It is even more than that. If your windoze system crashes. Put in knoppix live cd - which is bootable. And retrieve your important files. It has many futures Iam not going to list it now. You should do some searches or visit knoppix.net for more detials and downlaod it today.

Knoppix gave me real confidance to try linux on my system now

Ps. It runs from your cd drive only and does not touch your windoze install.

And when you get brave you can run a hard drive install and it really rocks. It is the favorite of all the distros I have running at the moment.

To install knoppix to your drive, boot up into knoppix after the desktop loads, open a terminal and type sudo knoppix-installer then follow the prompts and install the thing. If you do not want to install it you can save either the settings alone as a file t your hard drive or a thumb drive or your knoppix home folder to your hard drive or thumb drive you will have to type knoppix home=your hard drive or partition you saved the home folder to, or knoppix myconfig=same as above. You can find the options to this in the knoppix menu beside the kde menu. But instal it to your hard drive with the sudo knoppix-installer comand you won,t regret it, you will be rewarded with a debian install the easy way.