single boot system
 

I am trying to learn about Linux and have a dumb question. I don't want to keep windows on my computer so how do I partition my hard drive to just run Linux?

When you install Linux you will see the option to change partitions. Just let the installer do the dirty work for you and install over windows. It will format it automatically for you.

Re: single boot system
 

Way to go!

Even using Linux as long as I have, I still wind up setting aside a small bootable DOS (no, not Windows, DOS. And just a few MB) partition to hold various programs for, say, hardware testing and the like. Not that I've actually booted any of these partitions in quite some time. I guess it's just an easier way to do a BIOS update when you don't have to run around looking for an old DOS boot floppy.

A main partition mounted as "/" and a swap partition are usually considered the minimum. Unless you know how you want to do it otherwise, this is perfectly good.
If your drive is good size you may consider having another partition or two. Backup files, try another distro, etc.
Good Luck.

Agreed. That's the absolute minimum. However, for a personal system, I would strongly recommend a separate filesystem for /home and for /usr/local. Having all your personal information, web pages, custom programs, etc. in a separate filesystem or two can really save the day come upgrade time or if someone wishes to switch distributions. There seem to be enough questions about ``how do I protect my home directory'', etc. that I would say (IMHO) that three partitions should be the minimum. For a server, I would usually recommend multiple disks and giving /var, /var/db, and /var/www (or wherever your distribution chooses to stick its web pages -- I choose /opt/httpd but that's just my own druthers -- their own filesystems and sometimes even /tmp. You can probably think of some others; it depends on what you're setting the system up to do.

The problem with creating more partitions is the sizes may not be correct. I have heard of people with 1GB swap and 1GB boot partitions. The swap size may be more debatable (perhaps heavy compiling) but the large boot just wastes space. Also it complicates a multi-boot system. 3 or 4 distros each with their own boot, var, root, home, or more as many recommend.
A seperate home is a very good idea and much easier to judge a size for.
As much as I will argue the point is to say that it is easier, and not a bad choice if you are not sure about sizes or how to divide partitions.
If you have so much as a vague notion how and why you want to seperate partitions and want to do it, go for it.

And the vendors don't give you much of an idea of the needed footprint for the various trees, either. (And the commercial UNIXes don't often do it or get it right when they do provide that info. Which really stunk when you were installing from slow QIC02 tapes.) If you're looking to separate things into their own partitions, with systems as fast as they are nowadays, install it once in one filesystem, measure the usage of the areas you wish to separate out with `du -sk', and reinstall after you've planned the layout. As for multi-boot systems... I have no need for that level of complexity. Sounds like a good reason for swappable drives, though. Just to simplify your life.

Thanks