Linux

I have been an apple customer for years now, and am not satisfied with the direction that they are going. So I just ordered my first PC notebook the other day. I have no desire to use windows, however with microsoft's hold on the market, I feel that I may have a hard time doing this. I want to install windows as my primary OS, as I have no clue as to what Im doing with Linux. I would like to divide my hard disk into 2 partitions, one large windows partition, and a slightly smaller Linux partition. The goal is to learn linux without just jumping in, I want to still have a laptop that I am able to operate.

Does linux run well on a partitioned hard drive (or at all)?

What version of linux would you recomend for a first time user of a single system? I would like to get into open source programing, at some point, but first, I want to learn the operating system.

I wouldnt mind being able to run OS X on my laptop and I was wondering if, with a linux or unix system, I could somehow cheat OS X into running?

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Bryce

Yes... Install Windows (create your Windows partition during the Windows installation - leave future Linux partition unformatted), then install Linux, placing GRUB/LILO on the MBR.
This is a very broad question - all of the various Linux distros have their pros and cons. For a newbie, I'd recommend Fedora Core or Mandrake/Mandriva. Search these forums as this has been asked many times before - unfortunately the only real answers that can be given are personal preference and point-of-view. If you dual-boot, you can easily install another Linux distro over the top of whatever you choose initially if you dislike it. Also, if you format the Windows partitions as FAT32 instead of NTFS, you can easily transfer files (i.e. back them up if you decide to change distros) to the Windows partition from Linux.
PearPC may be what you're looking for - a PowerPC emulator for Windows / Linux.

Cheers
ZB

You can also try your hand with the "Live-CD" versions of GNU/Linux distro's. These are entire distributions of a GNU/Linux OS which runs directly off of a bootable CD. There is no installation to the hard drive, which is great for those new to the GNU/Linux community. You can quickly try out many of the available distros, which can help narrow down your search for your ideal system.

Then once you find a distro of GNU/Linux which might appeal to you, you could then try the installation to hard drive route.

Here is a link to a site which lists the many (282) available LiveCD's and LiveDVD's.

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php