Hi Andy....Yah it's quite the dilemma. but j.drake is right. Dont abandon Windows too quickly!!!! Indeed LINUX can be HARD. But with patience and the forum, it has helped me along. I have been using Knoppix since March of this year. What worked for me was I popped in a SECOND HARD DRIVE. I got a 40G from my brother for nothing. I believe he had WinXP on it so there was still an NTFS partition on it. I can't remember how I deleted the NTFS partition and partitioned it for Linux. But thats easy to find in the forum or just ask. Anyway, It wouldnt matter how much i screwed up the installation on the 2nd HDD when i started cause i could always re do it! To me, that seems like a good choice, with the low price of hard drives today. Then you dont risk the chance of wiping out your Windows. You just have to change boot sequence in BIOS to boot from CD, and to make sure you install on HD "B", that is, hard drive "B" the second hard drive. Hard drive "A" is the one with windows, the FIRST hard drive. Anyway thats how mine was done.
But if you have Win2000, you could always start from scratch and partition drive for the 2 OS's. At least with Win2000 you dont have to go thru all the BS of re activating when you re-install again like i did. Believe me i was pretty confused at first, but the simplest way for me was to install Knoppix on a separate HD. That way i could still have my WindowsXP and also learn Knoppix without breaking anything. Another idea is if you have an extra PC laying around, you could also use that as experimental Knoppix machine. I must have installed and re installed dozens of times, so now i have most of it down pat. I do like 3.4 better than 3.3 though. As far as poor mans install, i dont know about that one. It is tempting, after running the CD a few times, to want to do a full HD install. just read the forum messages and get a little more knowledge first....and you will always find someone to help you in here...I know cause the people in here helped me alot. bob