I am completely new to the world of Linux, I have already asked for advise on the best OS to start with and was told to start with Fedora 8. I have downloaded an iso file that will fit on a DVD and I am not sure that I understand how to use this to load the OS onto a laptop that has been formatted using a copy of WIN98 boot disk. I have completed an FDISK, & formatted the drive. Does this iso just get burned directly to the DVD with out a boot file and it will load, or do I need a boot file like DOS to boot from the DVD? Also I have never tried to boot from a DVD will this work, will the laptop view it as a CD so to speak? Or do I need to down load the GRUB file I keep reading about and use it? I really need some help with this as I am not familiar with Linux as I said in the beginning. I really would like to load inux on my laptop and start to learn it, as I am getting tired of the problems I keep having with Winblows, someone please help.

What laptop is it? If it's an old laptop, you might need a boot disk like Smart Boot Manager to boot from DVD. Also, does the laptop have a DVD-Rom?

As for the iso image, what you do is open up your favorite burning program (like Nero or Roxio or k3B) and the select File --> Burn Disc from Image. The iso contains the necessary boot files (as long as your laptop is compatible).

Assuming you have a DVD burner on your laptop, just burn the iso to a DVD disk. The iso contains the bootloader that will boot the DVD when you reboot with the DVD disk in the drive. If it runs as a livdDVD, you can try out Fedora without installing anything, though it will run slower than an installed OS because files have to be de-compressed before they will run. But you should be able to do all that you could do with an installed system.

If you want to go directly into installation, you will probably be given a menu of options from which you elect to install. You will have various dialogue screens presented to you to setup your locale, prefered language, keyboard, partition to install into, and filesystem to use (ext2, ext3 [ext2 with journal: makes it easier to recover from unexpected loss of power and system corruption], reiserFS, and a few others. The most popular filesystems seem to be ext3 and reiserFS. I suggest you do a bit of research into the pros and cons of each before choosing which to use.

Fedora will probably install the grub bootloader to boot Linux. If you want to boot either Linux or windows, the installation will write the config file to give you the choice when you turn on the computer (if windows is currently installed. If not, and you want to add windows later, you will have to edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf to add windows to the menu). If you only have Linux on the machine, then grub will only show you Linux with a default timeout of 8 seconds (I think it's 8 seconds) then boot will resume. You can override the default by simply pressing <enter>.

The laptop is a Compaq Presario R3000 and it has a DVD/CD-RW combo in it, I will try to burn the image to a DVD and make an attempt at installing the OS. Thanks for all of the help I am sure I will be back with more questions.