Pre Installation of Linux for a newbie

Hello all,
I’m very new to Linux. I’ve just put together my dream machine for a Linux workstation. Question is ‘do I need to install Windows 98 or MSDOS before I install Linux on the machine?’ I read somewhere that we need to in some article but have since lost track of that article. If it is true, I find it a little wierd that we will still need to pay for a Microsoft operating system liscence and to install it as a pre-requisite to install a GPL based operating system such as Linux. If it istrue, when will Linux be able to be installed right form a Linux CD?