🚀 go-pugleaf

Here I am, sitting at my win98', microsoft infested, 2 year old
gateway.  I've been slowly working my way into the
code-hacking/open-source community.  It just so happens that the next
logical step is to install linux on my system so I can test it out.  I
don't have enough room on my main pc's HD to install and work with
linux, so I found a few older pcs to work with.  So now I've got 3 old
computers, trying to get linux onto one of them.  Here is the most
likely candidate:  It was entirely operational until a few days before I
aquired it.  It's an old 486/66 that was running windows 3.11.
Unfortunately, the cdrom drive is inaccessable and the HD has been
formatted.  I tried a few things, but I can't find a valid driver for
the cdrom drive.  I really have no idea where to go or what to do.  I
have no training or experience with hardware, or with any operating
system other than windows3.x-2000.  The cdrom drive is a "SONY CD-ROM
DRIVE UNIT MODEL NO. CDU33A" and the only date I could find on it was
1993, so it isn't all that old.  Even if I had access to the correct
driver, I wouldn't be sure what to  do with it.  Any help would be
appreciated.