I have (and it must stay working properly) Windows Vista Ultimate. I want Linux. Got meself a mag – Linux Format so a CD with Tiny Core Linux is here. How do I make sure both OS's are bootable (with Vista being the default one)?

Easy BCD should do the trick.

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm

or use virtualbox and run it in a vm

I'm trying Virtualbox and struggling. Long will it continue 🙁

yes indeedee.
use Ubuntu – it's a doddle
download a LiveCD and boot off that, it gives you a chance to dick about but won't let you save changes or downloaded apps
when you're ready to go, install it
allow 20-30 gb for your windoze partition and format the rest as ext3
the ubuntu installation should see the windoze installation and use grub to create a boot menu with 4 options, 1 ubuntu run time, 2 ubuntu maintenance and 1 for windoze. Ubuntu run should be the default.
windoze should still be intact.

The reason to use ubuntu is this rather excellent book

Thanks, I rather like Ubuntu but some 3 years ago, having installed it onto my laptop, I found out I couldn't connect to the web. Un-install didn't work, had to go to a shop. Probably unlucky me.
I'm trying Fedora 11 on the Virtualbox and it's taking a while to install (or whatever the PC's doing). Let's see what happens next 🙂

If you dual boot as above (doesn't need to be Ubuntu) then, if you've had enough of Linux, you can boot to the Windows, use disk manager to delete the ext3 (or Unknown) partition. IIRC, you can then grow the NTFS or FAT32 partition into the free space. Done.
I did have a bit of dicking about to do to get wireless working on my laptop, but used the cable connection to connect to the internet and used the forums to get it sorted.
These are the reasons for using the LiveCD first and seeing how you get on.

Oh and the reason for using Linux Partition manager to shring the Windows partition is because it's minimum size for a system partition is fekkin huge.

My PC doesn't like Linux Os's. It stopped working totally, went into Safe Mode and told me to "go away". I think I'll get a 2nd-hand laptop to play with later this year. I really want a reliable computer with Open Office, Firefox, Sunbird, some media player possibly.
Is Fedora hard? Should I really go for Ubuntu?

I had Fedora for a while, It used KDE as it's windowing system, which i never really took to. That;s a matter of personal preference, i know people who don't like Gnome (Ubuntu default), The underlying OS is still Linux and Linux is petty much the same whatever the flavour
Both Ubuntu and fedora have LiveCds available – run OS from CD without making any changes to the current machine. If you have any doubts about what youre doing, you should use them. Apparently you can configure the Ubuntu one (so probably the fedora one as well) to save apps and data to a usb stick. I never managed that, but did commit to Ununtu fairly quickly..

So basically, it's a question of getting a Live CD, boot from it and see, is it?
If something sounds too good to be true…
Thanks.

yup, 's'all there is to it.
For Ubuntu, you download an iso image of the CD and burn it Assume the same is true for Fedora

Ubuntu LiveCD

Fedora

I'm getting Ubuntu off the web. All I need to do now is to nick my mother-in-law's laptop when we go and visit 😀