Okay, well... I'm getting my first laptop soon and I am doing some research. My parents wont get me an apple so I am getting a PC... And a fairly decent one too. But, I hate all windows OSs..... So my plan is to install Linux... Which I believe is far superior (according to my research).... Anyways if you linux vets out there think you can give me some tips, super! I am actualy downloading "Desktop" which is this kinda try out to see which one I like.... (Ubuntu, Kubuntu... Etc) so if any of you guys have your opinions please tell me... And I would like the best one for gimp. Anyways thx

Oh and also.... Would it change my installation procedure if I bought my windows machine with Windows XP Home vrs Windows XP Proffessional? Or would it matter?

No. It'll get wiped anyways.
I recommend:
-Ubuntu if you like Mac OS X's UI
-Kubuntu if you're at home in Windows
-Xubuntu if you'll game a lot on that laptop
-Sabayon if you want to get as much power out of it as possible. If you're a total newb to Linux, try Mandriva One 2007.

Just make sure you install windows first, if you install windows after linux then it overwrites the bootloader (bad).

For ease of use and your first time starting out with Linux I would try and dual boot it. Depending on hard drive size I would re-install windows for half of the hard drive first. Because it's a laptop I would look at Suse and *bunutu first. They have been the best for my laptops. I would first go to distrowatch and find out more about them. Specifically, go check out there forums first and see if you see a bunch of threads about poor laptop support or anything specific to your new computer.