I found something interesting out here. For all us Windows-users who want to try Linux but can't, let me introduce Knoppix. I haven't tried it myself, and I'm a Windows user, but I certainly will try at some point.

I use Knoppix on my home file server (it only has a 1 gig hard disk)
Knoppix is a compressed bootable cd-rom with over 2GB of software.

you boot the cdrom and have all sorts of software avilable for use.
Security tools...
Tools for fixing or recovering data from dead windows machines.
cd . DVD burning software,
media players (DVD VCD MPEG DIVX AVI / whatever)
compilers for C, C++ Java,
Web browsers
email clients
games
file shareing.
email servers
http servers
ftp servers
ssh servers
printer sharein
development tools (like visual studio / VB)


you can do almost anything with knoppix that you can with a normal linux distro... without having to format your hard disk or commit to anything.

its a bit light on the eye candy.. and since its loading software from compressed cdrom it loads a little slow... but knoppix is a MUST have.

also.... DSL is worth mention... its a cut down version of knoppix...
web servers / web browsers and a load of usefull utilities on a 50 megabytes CD !

(DSL = Damn Small Linux)

Knoppix it's a good choice to start learn linux without configure the partitions on the disk, because it boot from cd and run from cd, but use this only to try, because if you always use knopixx in that way, it will kill your cdrom drive. The better choice is partitioning the disk, to install directly to the harddisk, it's something hard to do, there is not GUI (graphical user interface) to do this, then you have to use linux command, if you want something more definitive you can try the easy sides from linux, they are Mandrake and Redhat distributions.

Greetings Deivid

Kill your CD rom drive ???
hows that gonna happen ?

Knoppix is a great tool to have, especially for recovering data or trying out Linux before installing it on a machine. However, rather than installing knoppix onto a partition of the hard drive, why not install an actual distrobution of Linux? (I recommend Mandrake 10 or Suse 9.1) It is easy to install, has a graphical installation interface, and you can dual boot easily with Windows.
Give Linux a try with Knoppix, then get serious and install it =)

Knoppix runs from cd-rom, just imagine your cdrom all day spinning like a hardisk reading data, cdrom drives are not designed to function like that. So if you use your cdrom drive in that way of course it will be die soon. Give it a shot, download knoppix and try it, you will see. Well I'm not saying knoppix it's bad, but if you use so much, the life of your cdrom will be shorter.

Greets Deivid

Wow! Mandrake's up to 10 already? I really need to keep up with this stuff, I'm obsolete
I heard of another OS that could boot on a floppy called Minuetos ( http://www.menuetos.org/ ). Supposed to be written in Assembly so theoretically runs very fast, but I couldn't find any "Features" on it that would make me want to keep it other than for novelty purposes... Of course, I'm not an assembly programmer, so I'm probably missing out on the cool customizations and modding it's open for.

hm, it's less dramatic as you think. most of the os is loaded into the ram memory, so it runs faster and it doesn't use your cdrom drive all the time.

i only use it to rescue someone's system. all i need is my external harddrive and the knoppix cd: i can copy all the important info to my hdd, and then i can format his drive without worrying.