Linux for the shy and retiring types

I've always wanted to try Linux. But I've never had the luxury of an extra PC with which I could wipe out the hard drive, the making of drive partitions makes me nervous (I confess, I have killed at least one PC with boneheaded use of fdisk), and I want to try before I buy myself a heap of free trouble.

Here comes Knoppix to save the day. It's yet another free Linux distrubition, but what makes it different is that it can boot and run from a CD-ROM drive. And while it's available cheaply if you don't want to burn your own, I am going to attempt my own download and burn (even though Windows is crippled -- probably by design -- from allowing you to burn the disc images, lest you be tempted to leave Microsoft behind, I imagine).

There is an XP helper application to burn what's called an .iso image, and I will try it, but the image can also be made on a Mac, even though the software itself is for a PC (funny, that).

While I do have some experience with command-line UNIX from my days as a PC-less student at UC Santa Cruz in the mid- to late '80s (when only the few and the moneyed had a PC of any kind in their rooms), I welcome a UNIX-derivative with a graphical user interface and a whole host of free applications. I'm already using Open Office for writing, the GIMP for photo editing and Firefox (sparingly). All that and more is on the Knoppix CD, and there's even more if you burn a DVD.