Current Linux's (and I can gurantee Unbuto as the Win portion on by dual boot laptop ia that) are quite happy reading NTFS file systems.

If going about a clean dual boot install, I've always put Win on first as these Linux's are pretty good at setting themselves up to co-exist on a drive with Windows. The only thing you might want to change is the suggested partition sizes. It via grub (or lilo with some other Linux distruibutions) will also sort you out with a dual boot menu.

The biggest drawback I found personally (although I think I can say the same about Pip...) is that with a dual boot system or at least my first attempty - it wouldn't be the case now, it's tempting never to look at the unfamiliar but to stick with what you know.