I've tried alot of distro's, and my favorite by far for desktop distro's for newbies would be Mepis Linux, check it out, it's like Knoppix, but even easier to install to hard drive and more GUI administration tools.
I read a review this morning and this distro is supposed to install as well if you wish to.
Dual boot is an option. I don't have any use for Windows so I don't think about it.
Anybody know of a Windows that runs on a CD/DVD just in case?
-- Robin Laing