I wrote a how-to for Ubuntu which may help you. Like @NateTheBrewer said … It’s a lot like installing Windows in some ways. You won’t be “hacking together” anything, you will be installing some apps and configuring networking and file sharing settings.
Research distros if you like, but keep this in mind: if you choose a distro that is not very popular because you are seduced by its claims of speed, security, and sexiness … It will be that much harder to get help if something doesn’t work as expected. There is no shame in using a popular and well supported distro where people have already written down every procedure you may need. As a new Linux user, whatever an exotic distro may do better than Ubuntu is unlikely to actually benefit you.
