Try Linux

Are you a Windows user that heard about this thing called Linux and want to feel what is this buzz about?

So you have to try Linux. There are plenty ways of doing it (besides buy a fresh installed new Linux box or format your hard drive to have a clean Linux installation):

dual boot;
virtual machine;
live cd/flash drives;
linux demo.

Dual boot means that you can have more than one OS in your computer and load one of them at boot time. To run Linux you need a compatible boot loader like Grub to do the task that will enable you to select which OS to load in memory at boot time. You can also configure it to start one of them by default automatically with no need of user intervention. See the documentation of your boot loader for more specific information.

A virtual machine enables you to emulate an OS inside another as a common application. It does this by creating an environment (API libraries) similar to the original one and translates this to instructions specific to the host. This is the same as the popular Java virtual machine do achieve portable java code or a native language compiler, the difference is that the java code is interpreted, although not necessarily, and a compiler create a native object specific to the host environment.

A live cd, like Knoppix, is an OS that is loaded to memory like a standard one but does not have disk access so it does everything from memory. This has advantages when you just which to try something without making permanent changes to your system.

A related concept is a boot from a pen disk. It does not however have the 'read only' limitation of a cd so you could save your documents; the limitation is that not all bios support booting from a removable media like a pen disk, but the good news are that unless you own a somewhat old machine odds are that your system supports this feature. Just enter bios setup at boot time and see for yourself if this is the case or you need an bios update.

A Linux demo is the most unobtrusive/transparent - a term borrowed mainly from web programing- of all; It's easy as open your browser and point it to the open source demo center at the open source region Stuttgart website, following their instructions and try Linux online with just a minor client installation.