do I need to uninstall windows to load linux?

No, you can perform a dual-boot.

Actually dual booting is quite easy and good for the transition period (supposing you want to learn to use linux exclusively, or maybe just find out if it suits you) especially if you don't have a second computer to play around on.

BTW, linux from scratch is actually a linux distribution , so this forum isn't so much about how to start learning linux as about specific problems with LFS. Next time you may want to choose the newbie forum (or another more appropriate one) and give a slightly more descriptive title to make it easier to see at a glance if a user can help you

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-Newbie and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Are you asking whether you need to uninstall windows if you already have it installed, or whether you can dual-boot them?

If you already have windows on your drive, there are partition-resizing tools you can use to make a new partition for Linux.

If you have neither, simply create a partition for Linux of the size
that you want, and leave enough empty space for your windows install. Then install on that partition.

You can always get another hard drive.

I strongly recommend that you do get a second hard-drive. Each operating system that you intend to host can have its own drive, with its own environment all to itself. Ex minimis, you can select the operating system by choosing a boot-drive in the BIOS "Setup" screen.

Take the time to carefully review this site -- not only this forum but all of it -- before you proceed.

Learn from the s and the s of those who have come before you, so that you won't simply repeat those mistakes. (Instead, you can invent all new mistakes of your very own! )

I've had up to 5 OSes installed on the same HDD without the least problem and all working perfectly. Using different drives makes it easier to keep track of your partitions etc, but is by no means a requirement, nor will it make your system more efficient from the user point of view.

I recomend that you create a Linux partition on your HDD for the time being.....You dont have to uninstall windows totally till you get the hang of Linux

Just use partition magic and resize your partitions for windows if you want to instlal linux on the same hard drive. If you were to install things vise versa windows your screw up your boot loader and install the default one linking to windows only.

I make the suggestion mainly because, especially for a newbie, this is a more-robust situation: it gives you an always-attainable "fallback position" that you can scramble back to when you're about what just went .

If you've grabbed an off-the-shelf retail Windows, and that's what you're used-to and Linux is brand-new and you're plunging into the water for the very first time(s), I think that having an entirely separate drive to play with is easily the best approach.

Actually, in my main system I have three internal drives, as well as a FireWire/USB2.0 board to which high speed external drives are, from time to time, connected. "Having plenty of disk space to fool with, on multiple volumes," really just adds a whole lot of flexibility, no matter what you're doing. Like RAM, it's relatively cheap, relatively easy to install (except for those iddy-biddy screws!) and it gives you a lot of options.

True, using a seperate drive can make things easier (although the first time I tried to use a second drive while formatting I accidentally reformatted my first drive instead of the second!!!), but having said that the difference in my experience is negligeable. Also keep in mind that many users are willing to have a look at linux as long as it won't cost them anything. If they happen to have a spare drive, so much the better (again, this can also lead to many typical double drive installation mistakes, e.g. installing grub to the mbr of the 2nd drive and then not understanding why 'linux won't boot'...), but think cheap - untill they realise having a good and stable OS is worth spending some money on decent hardware.