OK I'm not sure if this is meant to be in the hardware section, but I'm building my own computer for the first time. I plan on running only Linux on it for the time being. I have never installed Linux on its own, so I have always set up the partitions in Windows before. I've never built my own computer before either.
I am assuming that when I first get the computer and put it all together, the hard drive will not be formatted or anything. How do I go about installing Linux on my new hard drive? Do I need to format it with some kind of floppy disk utility? Can the computer automatically boot from the CD drive (dunno if drivers are required) as I have done before with Linux installations, and then format the hard drive in the installation?
By the way the hard drive will be OEM, so just the disk and no special software or anything. It's a Western Digital 80GB IDE.
I'd really like some pointers as to how to do it. Thanks in advance.