So I'm probably getting a 500G external tonight, which will allow me to move all of the files from my old PC, as well as the new PC's files. This will allow me to do what I've wanted to do for a while: A dual boot.

Which Distro?

I want to use Vista for gaming, video editing, flash/programming, and web validation. I need to be able to access all of the files saved by the linux os and back. The linux os will be for trillian, listening to music, firefox, office work (I'm rehauling all of my contacts), and other basic user functions.

The list of key requirements:
Easy. I don't want to spend all of my time fixing the software. That's why I'm dual booting in the first place. I just want to be able to do normal every day things without having to deal with things not working for absolutely no logical reason.
Pretty. I like aero, I want something that wasn't designed by a programmer.
Versatile. I need the os to run a variety of programs that open a whole variety of files. If I constantly need to return to vista to open and convert music I downloaded, it won't be worth it.

Anyone have some suggestions?

why?

You are not the right kind of user for Linux.

Dual-booting for basic tasks is a stupid idea. You will quickly find yourself using only the OS you are more familiar with -- Windows in this case -- and the other will go unused. Save yourself the effort, forget you had the idea.

Dual boot with XP.
Frankly i find that needed when i have Vista.

hmph.

I think he just wants to try it out for fun.

Don't bother partitioning though, it's not worth the bother. Just use Wubi instead, which is an unofficial installer for Ubuntu, the only useful desktop Linux distribution. It installs to a folder like any other program, and you dual-boot by way of the XP/Vista boot manager, so you don't need to worry about nuking your master boot record.

Or just throw up a virtual machine on your system.

Don't forget that if you ARE going to Duel Boot with Vista Linux needs to be the first partition since Vista randomly resizes the back end of its partition. Gay huh?

Not so much gay as it is annoying. It'd be gay if it started buttflexoring the other partition in the butt.

hmmm... i suspect kirby may be someone who will try it. i did this for 6 months only booting to windows when i needed to do some image editing (gimp sucks because of it's gui). it's a pain sometimes but to really experience it you have to do it. now i'm just a windows user that tries linux every once in awhile to see how they've come along.