Good linux distro + boot manager?

I currently run vista. I'm looking to get a distro of linux that will be good for programming (redundancy, I know). I am starting a c++ class at the local community college and I plan on learning c (on my own or next semester when I qualify for the course). I am thinking of getting a new hdd at about 40 gb and making that my linux disk. I have seen dual boots done, but it has only ever been from one hdd and caused lots of problems. will it cause more or less problems for me if I am booting from a separate drive? What is a good version of linux for me to get (i am currently thinking of getting ubuntu or redhat [if i can get redhat for free])? What boot manager would you suggest?

Good linux distro + boot manager?
Setting up a dual boot is easy! Sometimes problems come up, but they are always fixable.





I have a dual boot with Vista and Ubuntu. I do a lot of programming on Ubuntu (when I'm not using Visual Studio for a .NET application, that is). I like it a lot, and I would recommend it. It's easy to set up and to dive into. (I did have a little trouble getting mine to work, but only because I have 4 hard drives and 8 total partitions, plus I had overridden the boot priority in the BIOS to my secondary drive)





When you install it, it will install its own booloader (GNU Grub), which should automatically detect your Windows installation, and allow you to dual boot.





But... sometimes it doesn't detect windows, and you have to go in manually and edit the configuration file. This is easy to do. All you have to do is run the liveCD and mount your new installation, and find the file. If this is complicated for you, there are a ton of websites that give step by step instructions that you can print out beforehand.





And if that fails, or you don't want to do it that way, there is a program called EasyBCD that you can run from Windows. It will install its own version of Grub, and it gives you an easy visual interface that you can use to set it up.





As far as the separate drive is concerned, that would probably be easier, but there is really no problem doing it all on the same drive. As long as you are comfortable resizing your partitions, and you are cafeful not to delete your Windows partition, you should be fine either way.





Keep in mind that some people have had trouble booting from 2 separate drives if one is IDE and one is SATA. It's fixable through a bit of tweaking though.





Good luck! I think you're making a good decision to run linux, and to learn and c/c++.
Reply:I have set up many dual-boot configurations without problems. People that don't understand the process will have problems even if using two separate harddrives!





Grub is the recommended boot manager these days.





I prefer deb package management, which eliminates Red Hat and their rpm system.





If you set up a separate /home partition when you finally install, it is easy to switch distros, or if you want you can have both ubuntu and red hat, and more, if you so desire, and can trouble shoot any grub issues that may creep in.