Packard Bell is a proprietary machine so I don't know what will work on it and what won't. If it has a CD-rom, you can get Knoppix as an ISO image and burn to a CD. You can then boot from the CD and play around without actually installing on the HD. Knoppix will run from the CD and you can use it to access the HD, printer, etc. If you like the way it works you can then go for something a little higher up the latter. There will be a pretty good learning curve.