The alien thing goes away with time... its absolutely not necessary anymore to know the command line interface with Linux, most things can be handled via GUI now... When they can't, especially with Ubuntu, there's likely a howto somewhere that explains it step by step Shoulda seen linux back in 94, when I started running it... Hoo boy, what a difference 15 years makes

The links provided above are great -- I use many of those often, and I've got many years of experience with the operating system. The problem with the books -- while they're usually well written and full of decently relevant information, they don't have the advantage of flexibility in explanations and terms... With the internet-sourced information, theres a lot more chance of finding the newer, 'better way' to do something -- often the books are 3-5 years old, and the world of Linux changes very quickly... While the basics are always the same, the means to achieve various things change every couple years..

Good luck, and enjoy! Feel free to shoot a PM if you have any questions!

-Justin