Depending on what you want to do with Linux, you may find it worth considering runnign it under VMware player, or parallels instead. No partitioning required, and available whenever you want (with windows running alongside)
Downside is that it's not really useful for doing gfx work (so if you are planning to use bmax on it, it may not be great), but if it's for doing web based stuff it works really well.
Downside is that it's not really useful for doing gfx work (so if you are planning to use bmax on it, it may not be great), but if it's for doing web based stuff it works really well.