Getting started....
 

You can download virtually any version of Linux for free at http://www.distrowatch.com/

There is really no point in doing this unless you have a high speed connection. I have heard that some people with wireless connections have had problems with downloading large files from the net - the files would get nearly done and then stop. I'm not sure if this is true from distrowatch links but it should be considered in troubleshooting. Make sure you have ALL the required install cd's !!
Here are some steps I always follow and seem to work out for me in terms of getting decent installs:

See my page on Partitioning.

Or on Setting up the hard drive from the command line.

1)  create free space on the hard drive and then let linux autoallocate or use the linux partitioning program to create your own partitions. Know the difference between primary and logical partitions. You are only allowed four primary partitions per hard drive. Using extended or logical drives allows more partitions to be created but it also has a major disadvantage - when you erase the parent partition, all of the logical or extended ones go with it. This is why I like to use primary partitions.

Here is an example of how I have my drive (slave) set up for linux on my main box:
hdb1 - fat32 for mp3s primary
hdb2 - / for root in linux primary
hdb5 - /home for linux primary
swap - for linux 512mb (I have 1,024 mb ram - anything more than 512 swap is a waste imho) primary

see here for more info on partitioning during the setup. This is from the red hat install guide, but most distros use a similar method.

2) in terms of getting linux, use linuxiso.org.
3)  verify the iso md5sums
4)  burn with nero as an image (if you only have windass, otherwise I use cdrecord or k3b - k3b can verify the md5sums also), pick a decent speed (10x or so)
5)  use a decent cd-r
6)  if that doesn't work, you know you have done steps 1-4 correctly, so try a cd-rw disc instead, if that doesn't work, it must be the cdrom or a hardware issue or voodoo.

Setting up and Install...

Various methods of installing (from the red hat install guide but similar for other distros):

from the hard drive
from nfs (network file system)
from ftp
from http

from cdrom - read on...

There are lots of options with installation. I will go through each one. IMPORTANT: Since I suggest allowing Red Hat to do the partitioning for you in both options, I would also suggest not doing a full install. I would suggest doing a custom install and you can install everything you like except the servers. The reason for this is that due to it creating it's own partitions, it doesn't seem to be able to fit all of the packages on the install partition. This can cause problems later on for example when a dvelopment package may have been bypassed. This can cause you not to be able to install files that you will need later unless you go back and find out which dependencies it needs. My install went very smoothly - I picked a custom install and basically picked all the main packages except for the servers.

Option 1 - "The Believer!" - Installing Linux on your main or only hard drive. This is actually quite easy. I would first recommend that you clean off your hard disk by removing all partitions (I use Partition Magic 8). If you don't have any partitioning tools and you want something for free - click here! Just download the following two files:
paretboot.img and partroot-1.6.5 (last time I checked) and then make a floppy disk for each file and then reboot with the partboot.img floppy. If you are using linux, then you canuse the cp filename /dev/fd0 command, if you are using windows, then you should be able to copy and paste the files on to a blank floppy. Once you reboot, the instructions on the screen will to tell you when to use the second disk. Then you can type 'mc' for help and instructions on commands. Here is the homepage for Gnu Parted. Make sure you do the reading until you understand it well.
Once you have your hard drive free you can set your bios to boot from cd (if it isn't already) and insert your linux cd1 and it will create the necessary partitions during install. If you don't know how to set your bios to boot from cdrom, usually if you push the delete key (sometimes it is done with the tab or F1 key - see the black screen when you computer starts for more information). You can then usually go into advanced options and make sure the cdrom is one of the boot options. If your computer does not allow you to boot from cd, you will need to do some research on how you would like to install (try doing a search on Google.com or try some linux chatrooms or forums for more info. - as always get lots of opinions and make informed decisions! From there, it is just a matter of putting in the first install cd of the linux OS you have selected and letting it run the setup program.

Option 2 - "The Dual/Multi - Booter!" - This is what I chose to do. I do tech work and like to have an install of windows available to figure out issues that people are having. When you dual/multi boot, there are different ways to do this. I would strongly suggest reading some documentation on this to be sure what you are doing. You don't want to lose any valuable files! Please see my "how to partition page" for more information on how to set up your linux install.
There are different ways to run a dual boot system. I will just mention them briefly here and then you can do research on which is best for you. The one I chose was to use two hard drives and keep my "C" intact with all my windows files. My "D" was already partitioned so that it was "D" and "E". I removed any files that were on "E" and then resized "D" so that it was bigger (it's a 60G drive and I made "D" 40G which left me with 20G free). It took a long time to resize "D". Be sure you run scandisk and defrag the drive before resizing. Mine was an overnight job. I recommend deleting the second partition first ("E" in my case) so that it is easier to resize "D". Just make sure that you have already backed up or moved your files from "E" before you do this, otherwise you will lose any data on that drive. Once the resize is done, that's it. I left the 20G remaining "unallocated". That meant that I had my "C" (80G) and "D" (40G) remaining as Windows file systems. Then I had 20G free to with which to work. After that is done, double check everything and then put the Linux install cd in and reboot. If you decide to put Linux on a drive by itself, it is actually easier, just clear off the drive and insert the install cd and then reboot and use the recommended tools provided by the distruibution you are installing to partition your drive.

Installation...

If you can't boot from a cd or have a laptop that has an external cd rom that won't boot, you can create a floppy boot image. Here are the instructions to do that:

Put in a blank 3.5" disk.
Boot into windows or dos, put in your red hat cd 1
In windows or dos type: D:\dosutils\raawrite.exe (where D is your cd rom, you might have to browse the cd to find raawrite if not in dosutils\)
You will see a dos window come up,
then enter: d:\dosutils\../images\.img (filename is replaced by boot, bootnet, pcmcia or rescue or whatever type of disk you want - more information below)
You will be prompted to enter the target drive (floppy)
Press enter and it will copy the image to the floppy.

additionally, if you want to create other types of disks, then see the following list:

boot from the net - typically called bootnet.img
create a rescue disk - rescue.img
create a pcmcia disk - pcmcia.img

NOTE: Make sure any devices you want to use are turned on during the install as they can be recognized there and it will be easier that way. However; watch out for conflicting devices - for example two separate devices that use the same function like a webcam with audio support and a soundcard. They may conflict. You can try it anyway, but if I were you, I would unplug the webcam, linux doesn't seem to support webcams a lot anyway, but over all sound is very important.

For regular bootable cd roms:

If you were paying attention earlier, you will know how to use the Linux cd to boot your installation program. From here, there are some key features. I always pick the custom install - that way I can see exactly what is being put on the drive.

1 - Decide if you want a bootloader (the choice of a floppy boot is becoming very rare as most new kernels are too big to fit on a floppy) - for use with dual or multi-boot systems (you can use usually either ones called Lilo or Grub - I overwhelmingly prefer Grub, but some people like lilo) I have written some documentation on how to use and configure grub on the helpful tips and troubleshooting faq's pages. Also, a good third party site on using Grub is located here. If you need to reinstall grub - see the "Troubleshooting faq's" page. On my other system, I use a floppy. If you don't want to use a bootloader and would rather use a floppy or a third party bootloader then click on 'change bootloader' and select do not use bootloader. See this screen for an example of where you can make that selection. The advantage with using a bootloader is that when your computer boots up, it will give you a menu. From here you can choose which OS you want to use. ie - Windows XP, Linux etc. One of the advantages of a bootloader is that you may have less configuring to do if with your hardware. I had to associate my cd burner manually for example (see hardware).
Again, do research and make an informed decision. Ask in the easylinuxguide forum if you like.

Most of the install at the beginning is pretty self explanatory. The part you want to pay close attention to is choosing the partition to install.

2 - Selecting the Partition - This is crucial! Pay close attention to what the options mean here. If you only have one hard drive and it is free - then you don't have much to be concerned about. Just select the drive (having only one makes it a no-brainer) and install there. Don't get fancy with some of the other options unless you know what you are doing. See my "how to partition" if you want, otherwise, if you want the quick and easy way, keep reading here. You can just pick the option of automatically partitioning seen here. Just continue with the install. Linux will create the necessary partitions. If you have more than one drive, make sure you pick the right one in the menu (in Red Hat, it gave me the option to check off a box so I could review the partitions selected - bonus!) From there, you have a few options. If you are installing a second hard drive with no partitions - just proceed to select that drive and continue. In my case, I selected "Keep existing partitions and use unallocated/free space". There is an example of this screen here. I then went to the next page and made sure that my 40G part of my "D" was NOT checked off (you will see check marks next to the partitions that will be used for the linux filesystem (usually there are three). Spend a bit of time making sure what you are looking at on the screen is what you want.

I pretty much found that the install went very smooth. Whenever I was prompted to select certain things, I mostly picked the default or let linux use the settings it had already. If you feel confident enough to change certain things, then go ahead. Surely if you want to adjust your time zone and such, there should not be any problems.

Selecting Programs to install
Here is where I offer a piece of advice - If you are new to linux and have lots of available disk space, then keep in mind that it is a lot easier to install programs from the installation cd than trying to download the right file and then trying to install it later. I ended up selecting a full install except for the servers. I picked one server, but left the rest blank. It ended up being about 2.5 gigs. Once you have chosen which programs you want, you can click ahead and it will begin the install. Obviously the more programs you selected, the longer it will take. One thing I like about the Red Hat install better than Windows is that is showed me the files being installed indivually as they were being copied to my computer. It was a lot better than just looking at an ambiguous bar slowly making its way across the screen.