New Linux User?!?

Okay, i'm putting in an old Harddrive in my computer today so I can run Linux.  I've done some reasearch, but I don't know any Linux users first hand.

So, i'm a noob that would like to learn unix/linux...should I jump right in and go for Slackware or go for something like Ubuntu?  Or should I go with another distro altogether?  I'm not really going to be using it for anything other than programming/learning linux, because i'll be doing all my gaming/ect through my XP HD (hopefully).

Easy.
Get either Debian if you want to learn something or Ubuntu if it's only purpose is to run smoothly.

And, if you REALLY want to learn, don't install Debian normally, but with the "expert" flag and install testing or unstable.