i'm brand new to linux and know absolutely nothing at all about it except that i want to learn it and possibly switch from windows. for now i want to dual boot with windows, and i'm pretty sure you have to partition your hard drive for that, but i really don't know. first of all, i need to know what distro to use, and secondly, a link to some sort of "dummy's guide" to installing and operating linux would be great....or even a suggestion for a guide book. i can understand almost all computer terminology, but nothing that wouldn't be used in a windows environment. explanations of some linux terms i might see would be cool too. thanks in advance for all your help.