I've recently gotten a version of Linux (Fedora Core 2), and want to install it on my HP Pavilion. I have quite a few programs on my PC, and don't want to have to reinstall everything, and want to know if someone could give me a website with instructions, or can tell me how. I've already made sure it would work on here, but the guy who gave me the disk for it isn't able to help me install it at the moment.

I have a few questions, and I'm sure people will want to know the answers to them as well.
1. Are you completely replacing XP? If so, be aware that not apps will run in Linux (using wine or a similar program).
2. Do you want to dual boot with xp and Linx? If so, you can still have access to all your data, not the programs.
3. If you are replacing XP with a Linux distro, you most likely will have to re-install apps.

As far as how to replace XP, boot of a bootable CD of the distro you want (FC2). You need to make sure that the bios is set to allow you to boot of a CD.

You can either have the distro partition the HDD for you or you can manually do it with the CD or with another program.

If you need better details or more help ask, also you can look under how-to instructions.

I'm completly replacing Windows. If I cann't do that, dual booting would be fine, long as I don't have to deal with Windows all the time. I've found it to be unreliable, and more then slightly annoying to work with.
Thanks for the info, btw

Also, a small list of what I might need to find a replacement for program wise would be great, if anyone could tell me. I use my comp mainly for gaming, and the rest can pretty much be scrapped, cept IM programs. Thanks

If you're completely getting rid of XP, then you need to decide if you want to partition the HDD with the CD or manually. If you let the CD do it automatically, then you don't have to worry about it.
If you manually do it, then you need to decide how you want to partition it.
Most people have as little as 3 to as many as you like. Here are some examples (their sizes can vary):
/
/home
/usr
/var
/tmp
/boot
swap partition (normally duoble your ram)

It all depends on how you want your HDD laid out.
On one box I have a / , /home , /usr and the swap partition. On another I have 6 different partitions containig the above and more. Just make sure to plan for the future.

Some games have been ported to Linux, others you may want to run wine - http://www.winehq.org/
or simliar emulation programs.

As for IM's go for Gaim, it's my favorite and the one I use.

Yeah, I know about Gaim. The version of FC2 he gave me, he said came with an emulator, so I hopefully won't need to get another

I'd suggest you keep a fat32 partition for windows progs or data you want to keep. Fedora doesn't come with ntfs acess by default but you can download ntfs rpms.