Thank you very much, people!

Dapper Dan, thanks for the link, I'll go check it out.

Craig, thanks for the burn-CD link -- yesterday I downloaded shareware Cute CD-DVD Burner, which allows 15 burns before requiring payment. By that time I expect I'll be out of Windows and won't need it. But if I do, I'll use a free one!

Uncle Bubbles, the library is a good idea; I'll browse online and see if I can put something on hold or have it delivered to my local branch. And I'll seek out the wiki articles. Looks like I might choose Ubuntu as my distro, too.

Thanks for all the help!