I need to know if it needs a working OS to boot because my windows has crashed completely saying "It is now safe to turn off your computer" at boot up.
Plus ive always been intrested in Linux and I would like to know of this information.

Linux is an OS in itself, so you can run it alongside other operating systems, or you can wipe your machine and have Linux as the only OS.

My best bet for a beginner is a dual boot configuration. This will leave you with the windows world you have got used to, plus will let you tap into linux, plus will give you the experience of building a dual boot config.

Refer to this thread here for complete install (with dual boot) instructions, as well as a whole host of useful info.

So it automatically starts the setup when I put the CD in?
Once installed im going to wipe Windows off completly since it wont work.

If you go into your BIOS and set it to boot from CD, yes. If you read the post I linked to, there is pretty much everything else there you have to know.

What version of Red Hat do you have? If possible, try to install version 9, also what are the specs of your machine...?

If you are going to wipe Windows altogether (an interesting first move....) then you may as well just boot from that Linux CD, get to the section on disk druid and just delete everything, making a / partition and a swap and install away...

The file im downloading says shrike-i386-disc1.iso
Im downloading one disc at a time and burning them because of lack of space on this computer.

Im also reading everything I can about Linux to learn to connect with AOL with it (Done) and other things like image editing and other things Im going to probably be doing with this 3 GB HD still saving money for more space.

Yes, those are the Red Hat 9 CDs. Well done so far.

You only need the ones labelled i386. Don't bother with the ones labelled SRPMS. You only need 3 CDs.

Good going. Well done so far. You have gained brownie points for your first steps...

Yes I know ive been reading into everything I think I will be most impressed with Linux

One more thing how would I set the BIOS to Boot from the CD?

There should be an option called BOOT ORDER or somesuch. It varies from BIOS to BIOS, but there should be one.

Yes thank you I could have used that info to fix my windows but im tired of the OS im going to try out Linux instead thanks for the information.

How much do you know about Linux, and UNIX in general?

Not much this would be a first time for me plus if I dont like it I can always install Windows back on.

http://www.linuxheadquarters.com/howto/index.shtml

That page will give you the quick and dirty on how to do most common things. Expect a learning curve, though.

Also, read this:-

http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/unix/unix_cmd.html

Its some commonly used UNIX commands, which you will require.

Heh if it has anything to do with computers I learn fast....

Good, because as far as UNIX goes, there is PLENTY to learn.

Perhaps a fresh perspective will be good for you, however I am interested to know what has put you off of Windows....??

Well on my other computer Windows is completley jacked up most of the time when I start it up it has to go to a backed up state to run the registry for my some of my programs get deleted rendering them useless having to reinstall them again and ethernet drivers....Theres alot more but I dont feel like listing them.

Well, I will be very interested to see how you get on. Please post any observations, comments, questions or pleas for advice here on this thread. I am sure that this is going to be interesting....

Hmm...I need some info on where to get a program that burns ISOs

Any good CD Writing software can. Nero writes them, as does Roxio. What software do you have?

In linux, actually, you can burn an iso from the command line, like this:-

cdrecord --dev=0,0,0 myisofile.iso

don't just extract the files from the isos, actually burn them because that will make the CDs bootable and you are going to have to boot from the first CD.