hi statistical,

Like u told, one day i was also a newbie had no idea what linux was ! I was desperate to learn it. Then i decided let me buy a book and lo ! to my surprise i found CD's with the book itself. I bought the book and started reading it line by line then i successfully installed linux and from that day my realationship with linux is goin on pretty good. Now, i am the main propellor for linuxx in my company.

Why i told you this was because like me you also can go and bring some good linux book (i had brought Red Hat Bible) start readin it and enjoy the experience. If u have any test machine then you are better off doing ur first installtion on it. So, u can be freed of any back-up woes. If not, follow the installation instructions carefully in the book then i don't think u will have any trouble. Once you get the basics right and start to get experience you will be comfortable with any distro of linux. It's like once u know how to drive a car it won't make much difference if any one gives you some new car to drive, just baring few things here and there you will find it pretty easy to drive it too ! So, it doesn't make much difference what distro u have. Once you start gaining experience u can use any distros ! If u get stuck on any problem there are numerous web-sites on linux (check linuxbasis.com) and LUG's too who can help you out. So with linux you will never be left alone ! There's always some to help you out of the situation.

And yeah..another great thing about GNU/linux is that you can never stop learing more with it !!! Take my word for it !

I hope this would have helped you to get you started.