Thanks for the info P4man.
Not too sure that I have a use for installing a client, but it might be worth it just to see what it's like. It's still a very abstract thing in my mind right now. Until I see what the client interface and "silk road" network look like all I can think of is a web browser on the internet.
Thats precisely what it is. I only visited it for the first yesterday as I was curious myself. its just a (very, very basic) website. After you installed tor and torbutton, it opens -rather slowly- in your browser, just like any other website, it just has a weird looking address.
I get that the internet is what's used and different clients can have different looks to them (I assume so anyway), but I wonder things like... is there a way to search for stuff and can you link in and out of normal network sites...?
Sure you can link. But you can only access silk road if you have Tor running and your webbrowser is configured for tor (ie, you pressed the TorButton). In that mode you can visit any other website you want, but traffic will be routed over tor, meaning its slow and anonymous. But otherwise its the same internet you browse every day.