im in the process of making the transition from windows to linux now myself, it is a very different animal altogether and a little overwhelming at first.

for someone who is starting out i recommend this site:http://www.linuxnewbie.org/
they have NHF's (newbie help files) and they are step by step instructions for a lot of different problems one might encounter. also http://www.tldp.org/ has many books in .pdf format to help a newbie out.

good luck with your switch to linux!