Two of the most popular Linux "distributions,"
Ubuntu and
Fedora, offer "live-CD" versions. You simply burn the image to a disk, then boot your computer with it. It'll be much slower than installing the OS to your hard drive, of course, but you'll be able to play with each of these distros without making a commitment. Here are some torrent links:
For Ubuntu:
(Intel machines)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/ubun...86.iso.torrent
(AMD 64-bit machines)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04/ubun...64.iso.torrent
For Fedora:
http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/tor...6-Live.torrent
While Windows users typically all see the same desktop, you have a choice of desktop environment when it comes to Linux. Both the links above will install the "GNOME" desktop by default. If you'd like to see another desktop called "KDE" (my preference), use this link instead:
http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/tor...ve-KDE.torrent
One thing you'll quickly discover is that these distributions don't contain many multimedia codecs or software to watch DVDs. That's because most of this software is encumbered by patents or other restrictions that make it illegal to distribute them into countries like the United States. This software is available from third-party "repositories" like
Livna for Fedora users or the
RestrictedFormats repository for Ubuntu.
Have fun!