Yes! Several so-called “live-CD’s” seem to have captured computer users’ imagination lately. Live-CD’s will actually boot from the CD and do not necessarily need to be installed on the user’s hard drive...

• Knoppix – a Debian-based Linux designed by German IT teacher Klaus Knopper. This is a fully featured Linux distribution & includes OpenOffice.org. Free download: http://www.knoppix.org/
• Mepis – this is arguably the best of all the live CD’s. It is another Debian-based product and it has a supremely simple installer. This enables you to install it on your hard drive as well as booting from the live-CD. Mepis is the distribution currently preferred by Dental. Free download:
  http://www.mepis.org/
• Puppy Linux - this is one of several 'small' Linuxes. This is especially appropriate for older computers. It's small enough to fit on a business-card sized CD:
  http://www.puppyos.org/
  
• DSL - Damned Small Linux - another small -footprint linux suited to older computers. Like Puppy this is small enough to fit on a business-card sized CD:
  http://damnsmalllinux.org/