running linux at home

Running linux at home is your option, a useful idea though not required.
 - install it to hard drive (get it from e.g. http://www.fedoraproject.org)
 - install VMWare and run it under that. Free, works great. www.vmware.com . There are a variety of other free virtualizers you could consider (virtual PC from Microsoft, virtualbox from Oracle, parallels on Macs, libvirt virtualization library supporting qemu and kvm on linux).
 - boot from a "live CD" - here's a list of various self-contained bootable linux CDs. They typically convert memory into a RAM-disk, populate it with foundation files for the operating system, and proceed to boot linux. They do not molest your hard disk. But they are not storage-persistent. The best known is probably knoppix. FYI. There are live CDs for various versions of Fedora. Follow links "Workstation," then "x86_64," "iso" and download file e.g. "Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-34-1.2.iso ". Burn it to a CD. It will be bootable on a PC, without affecting the PC's "native" operating system (i.e., whatever is internal on its hard drive). From it, installation to the hard drive is an option.
 - boot Fedora from a USB drive.