I see my colleague Preston Gralla is looking for the best Linux for a Windows pro. That’s a good question with several good answers.
Preston’s son Gabe gave him some excellent advice when he recommended Wubi. This is the Windows’ world easiest Linux installer. With it, you install Ubuntu 8.04 just like it was any other Windows application. Download it, click the install button and let it rip.
It installs Ubuntu, from the Windows’ user viewpoint as a single directory. You don’t need to re-partition your hard drive, burn a CD, or do anything that any Windows user doesn’t know how to do. Once installed, the next time you reboot your PC, you’ll have the option of booting into Ubuntu as well as XP or Vista. If you don’t like it, you just uninstall it just like any other Windows program. No fuss. No muss.