You can try on your mac A live USB key (as in the tutorials mentioned above) is both a linux installer and a live system, which means that you can run the computer with the linux system already present on the key without installing anything. One of the upside/downside of such system is that once you reboot all changes made on the said system are gone. It's a downside for obvious reasons, but it's also an upside, as in you always get a clean linux basic setup when you boot on it, featuring a web browser, vieo/audio player, text editor, etc You're on a mac right?