If you wanted to try out Linux or Unix / BSD, and didn't want to have to partition a HD to do so, why didn't you just download a LiveCD version? Basically, you download an ISO format CD image, and then, you burn it as an image, and make sure the software you are using set it to be bootable (Some software makes you have to actually tell it that you want the thing bootable) and then, you pop the CD in, reboot, and it loads up, and runs off the CD.

You CAN install it to the HD, but you don't have to. SLAX is one, for example, based on Slackware, and OpenSUSE is one I'd recommend too. And once you're done looking at the pretty GUI, you can open up an X-Term, or Konsole, or Gnome-Terminal, and start typing commands, and watch them run.

Also, you don't have to give full path names. It's not 1970.