im not sure about Fedora. But Mandrake asks you if you want to install LILO (Linux Loader) which is a dual boot program which asks you which OS you want to use when starting the computer. So check if the Distro of linux you have has its own Dual loader. if not try Mandrake.
Mandrake and Fedora are two of the most popular Linux Distro's, as a beginner there isnt really any reason to choose one over the other. ip dip do it tbh.
Well as long as you've created your partitions beforehand, then you can dual boot both operating systems by installing them each on their own partition. PartitionMagic can do this non-destructively, but I think that some partition managers that come with Linux installers are destructive and will delete your Windows partition if you try to partiton the disk using them. Linux will install a bootloader as well, so that's not a problem.
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