Is it possible to get a cd/dvd and boot my computer to linux from it without wiping my hard drive of the windows OS. I have one XP Home sp3 and one Vista sp1 which will shortly be using a Windows 7 OS. I really want to try Linux but not at the expense of losing an OS I am familiar with. Sorry for asking such a basic question but I have never used any OS except Windows which I have been running since Windows 3.1. Thanks in advance for your understanding and patience[/B].

Hi,
Good morning.
It is possible.You can use this version linux of live cd which can boot from dvdrom.
You may access the website http://www.livecdlist.com/
Hope you have fun!

Hi, welcome to LQ!

You can do exactly that, by using a "Live CD" -- it boots and runs completely from the CD (or DVD, if there are live DVD's -- I'm not sure) and lets you see what the particular Linux looks like.

Note: As you might expect, running an OS off of a CD will make it run somewhat slower than it would if it were actually installed, so if it seems a bit sluggish, don't blame Linux -- and if you really like it, you can install Linux alongside Win. Let's leave that for a later discussion, if need be.

Meanwhile, have a look on distrowatch.com, read about some of the MANY Linux's, and find one that interests you (probably from the top 10 or so on distrowatch, as they're the most popular/commonly used) which offers a LiveCD version.

A fine example, for a brand-new newbie, would be an Ubuntu LiveCD.

And -- wow, that list at the link provided by jcky looks really helpful! There are a LOAD of Live versions listed there.

Good luck!
Cheers!
Sasha

Good girl!