new to linux, where to begin

[Gene Collins]

Hi Chris.  I have several machines that are dual boot machines.  Most of
the time they run linux, but if necessary, can boot DOS, Windows 95, nt,
2000, etc.  The trick is to shrink your windows partition so you can use
unallocated disk space for linux and swap partitions.

In order to do this, you first need to defragment your windows
partition.  Then, depending on which type of file system you have, vfat
or ntfs, you will need either fips20, for vfat partitions, or partition
magic for ntfs partitions, in order to shrink the windows partition, and
make disk space available for the linux partitions.  After you've
installed linux on the new partitions, you can tweak ether the lilo or
grub boot loaders to find and boot your windows partition. 
http://www.tldp.org/ is your friend for lots of linux info.  Of course,
you should also consult the site for which ever distribution you choose.
 In order to decide which, you should visit the various distribution
sites and read about them before making a decision.  For example,
www.slackware.com, www.debian.org, www.redhat.com, etc.

As others have said, which distribution you choose is very much a matter of
personal preference.  The fips20 program I mentioned is distributed
under the gnu public license, and should be run from a dos boot disk.

Gene