However, I don't want to go through the hassle of rebooting my computer everytime I want to switch to an application or OS. If there is a way to accompish this then please,
Well, in that case.... take the advice from spyrus and try vmware... only problem with that is that its freaky expensive. I tried vmware and its a truly astonishing piece of software.

Another solution, but not for running both at the same time, would be to setup SuSE linux, on installation it offers the possibility to resize your current win partition and make room for the linux system. You can then use 'dual-boot'. In addition, SuSE is an excellent linux distro for beginners and advanced users. It has terrific hardware support... since your planning on using it on a laptop. On my Sony Vaio laptop, it acutally regognizes and uses my internal win modem.

Cheers.