couldnt i just install linus on my own machine and leanr the shelll that way?.
also shell scripts work on windows aswell yea?

dan

Yeah you could learn Linux by installing it. But it involves partitioning and all sorts of other things that you may not want to do, Installing is a big step if you are brand new to linux.

You could also download an .iso of a linux distro, Burn the image to disk with nero (or something similar) and set your bios to boot from disk. That way you don't have to install anything. When you want to go back to windows just remove the disk and reboot. Some linux disributions will send you a pre-burned disk (or 10) for free.

Windows tends to use DOS which you can operate with batch files, Which is similar (though not as good) as linux shell scripting.

Linux is the kinda thing you shouldn't install unless you are prepared to sit down for 6 months trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Or if you do install it, make sure you still have windows to fall back on.

yea, i currently have windows xp pro installed, and a bootscreen and now also windows server 2003 install so i know how to have multi boot, the only thing i am fearful of is with windows installs which i am used to it shows the partitions etc in a way i know, last time i tried to install linux, i ended up partition my drive and mucking it up a bit, so i had to reisntall windows on the new partition and all my files had to be copied form the old (unbootable) partition... fun ...

Lol
i got ubuntu live cds and know all about boot order. so i can do that i have it set to boot from disc because im always using something like that so i canr be botherd to keep turning it off... i got a linux distro which decrypts the SAM database ... cool watching all "My" passwords being decrypted. i think it based on 'one' distro of linux or somin.

anyways one of the biggest things which kinds put me off linux was like with windows u can just like pull up control panel or somin and change settings and stuff but from what i saw it was like a restricted account i dunno...

i just want a easy to use function packed distro which can show me what linux can do compared to windows in a way a i can understand.
also if someone could explain (or provide a detailed tuorual ) on how to install it on a system with multiple windows OS it would be good.

Also has anyone used windows server 2003? i recently aquired it because iw anted to learn how to use it (and possible go over yo useing it for my server stuff on my pc) and was slighlty confuesed by some features.

Thanks all as always really helpful.
Dan

Dan, Linux uses different levels of permissions on accounts on purpose so you don't accidentally change things you don't want to do. There will be a root account which has all privileges, but you generally want to log in as a less privileged user and then only switch to root when you absolutely need to.

I have heard of this i think it is like (from what i have seen) windows servers you like user, admin, print admin and stuff with about 10 levels of priages.
Dan