If, by saying "look at the programming" you mean, be able to set your own values/build it up to your own preferences, slackware is a good choice. If you don't know what you are doing, getting it set up how you want won't be easy, but at the very least, it's a learning experience.
Here is a list of Linux Distributions. Most are free.
Python is the best starting point to learn to program. All the syntax of other languages is taken out so you can focus on good programming skills. And programming on Linux is simply more fluent, and in that essence, easier. A lot of IDE's are either installed, or right there in the Software Manager for you to install. For the longest while, I had a second ubuntu machine just for programming.
If you are serious about learning to program, I would suggest learning java. It is a bit harder, but it's more widely applicable. Nearly any machine can run java. Also, it is very similar to C++, which is another staple in the programming world. The benefit of java, is you aren't so worried about memory management.
Python is a fantastic language to start I hear, though I haven't yet got to it myself. Python (the interpreter) is available on both Windows and Linux. I don't know of any actual "python IDE", but Notepad++ on Windows or gedit/Kate/KWrite on Linux will be just fine for learning, they all have syntax highlighting, auto-indent, bracket matching and other handy features for editing code.
When you download Python from the official website (for windows at least. Though, they have linux downloads as well) it has it's own IDE that works very nicely. Everything you need to start programming is in that installer.
Oh, also, it comes with an interpreter, which is great for testing snippets of code. Gah, I miss Python.
