By Bill Bennett
Even if you have no intention of getting up close and personal with Linux, it may pay to download and burn a version called Knoppix (go to http://www.knoppix.org and click on the US/UK flag logo for an English version of the page or order it on DVD or CD from http://www.linuxcdmall.com/knoppix.html).
In geek speak; Knoppix is a Linux Live CD. That means it runs the Linux operating system directly from the CD, bypassing the hard drive making it a useful very useful tool.
Operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, Apple's OSX and most everyday versions of Linux, are a set of programs that sit in the background managing housekeeping tasks while you work or play on a computer. Generally an operating system is installed on a computer's hard drive and it automatically kicks in, or boots up, the moment the computer is switched on.
This is fine when everything is working, but if your computer is hit with a nasty problem and can't boot up, either because there's something wrong with its software or there's a serious hardware fault, you could be in trouble.
Knoppix can get around this problem. Simply put the disc in the CD drive and reboot. As the disc boots, clever software detects your machine's hardware, configures everything and loads most of the important programs it needs into the computer's memory. This way you can quickly have a fully functional computer. Although what you see may look unfamiliar and things may not always work as you expect, the version of Linux on the Knoppix disc can do pretty much everything Windows can.
It can do a lot more as there are dozens of applications including web-browsers, email programs, instant messaging, music players, file viewers and an office suite (similar to Microsoft's). Not bad for free software. All these programs run from the CD, so you can go online, surf the web and answer emails even though you can't use your computer as normal. This is often enough to surf to support sites where you can get advice on fixing the problem that caused your computer to stop working.
If you're more ambitious, you can read and write all your normal Windows files from Knoppix. This is especially useful for making backups of important data.