Live System Disk.
 

Why can't systems disks be "live"? That way when I make the usual beginner's errors, I could reboot from the CD and be on my way, being both more knowledgeable and confident to try other possibilities.

!?? What exactly do you mean?

There are lots of liveCDs out there,

Also: Doing a repair install of Mandriva 2006 free edition takes about 5 minutes. You must be too busy to mess with os's if you can't wait 5 minutes...!?

I have Fedora Core 4 - does that make a difference? I picked up the term "live" from a conversation I was eaves-dropping on. Perhaps I need to understand that term better? I don't want to experiment and blow up the system if a well explained procedure would avoid that. I might as well ask how to write to a CD. Does any one have a step by step answer?

try knoppix,its a single live CD . u can get the feel of linux frm it.

u can get it frm here here(knoppix)