Thanks all for kindly posting your precious recommendations and tips.

(K)Ubuntu and PC-BSD Live CD's it will be... as an appetizer.  :O)

For future reference for people considering giving it a go, here are some
useful links:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions
- http://distrowatch.com

Best,
Alan