Have you tried a bootable CD, like Knoppix? Tons of free ditros out there, and it’s a great way to get a feel for the OS without having to start your experience trying to make hardware work.
Not yet, I’ve been working with a copy of Red Hat that is bootable (came with my Linux for Dummies) but it is so old and out of date that I gave up. I’m wondering if I might need to flash the BIOS to a newer version or something.