Reply #19: That would be excellent.

[bemildred]

If you run off the CD, only mount scratch/memory filesystems
for disk storage, and surf as an unprivileged user, you
should be more or less invulnerable to any permanent damage.

One can think of complicated scenarios where some "hacker" takes
control of such a machine through a sophisticated exploit, mounts
something important, and manages to damage it, but I would feel
safe enough. Such a scenario requires detailed foreknowledge of file
structure and taking control of a privileged process or attaining
root privilege for the brower from an unprivileged state, all
most unlikely things.

Old, no longer important machines are also good browsing sandboxes.
If nothing important is exposed to the net, nothing important can
be damaged by attacks.

My practical experience has been that if you have NO OPEN PORTS,
use a non-Windoze browser, and DO NOT USE MS OUTLOOK, you are safe
enough unless someone really sophisticated and with resources takes
an interest in you.