if you have the bandwidth and a cdrw you can download the linux cd's for free.
i got the two madrake 8.0 cd's from
www.mandrake.com i am sure that the other mainplayers [redhat, suse etc] have the same thing going on.
it was easy to install and set up it's own d-b with win98se. i removed it when i put win2k on, i will put it back when i have time to learn it properly - i wasn't giving it the respect it deserved.