Some Questions About Linux And SpeakUp

[Parham]

Hello,
I sent some messages to mister John Covici but then figured that they have said do not message them and join to the mailing list instead. Well there were some questions I needed to ask:
First, Is it possible to instal GRML and not use the live CD?
second, is it possible to get free software synths other than what is the default one? That is good, but hard to understand.
Third, I should be able to switch to the GUI mode by pressing alt+ctrl+f7 but that does not work?
Fourth, is it possible to instal Linux on a computer that had Windows XP SP2 on it without data loss?
Thanks.
And now comes the introduction:
I'm Parham Doustdar, 17 years, from Iran, and am going to university to study computers this year. One of our books is about Linux and I have decided to switch to it. That's how I found you people. :)
Anything else? I'm very open to questions as long as we have no political talk about nuclear stuff and such here. That's ok for me, but that would cause some problems in the list, not me.
Take care,
Parham