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I strongly recommend using Whoppix. It comes with a vast exploit database and lots of handy tools. Knoppix-std is pretty neat one too. I don't have a great opinion of hack9.
Whoppix is gross... Anyway, go with KSTD. As stated though, take your time. You don't have to learn everything at once so you should take the time to learn everything well over a period of time as opposed to cramming it all in. The other thing to remember is that you shouldn't be learning security by starting with "hacking" and all that. Start with programming and protocols, then work your way up. Security and hacking are a coallition of basically all knowledge dealing with computing (most on the software end, but some on the hardware end as well) being put to use. KSTD would be a good place for you to start with learning basic *nix commands because it is live boot (no install required... as I hope/think you know). While it has a UI interface try doing things as much as you can through xterm and that should help improve your knowledge of the basic commands and how *nix responds to certain commands, what is spit out for what errors, etc. Also, scripting is a very useful tool for hackers, and the network admin so put time into that as well.