Hi, On the Linux part, before you get a place to work with Linux in a production system: - Install Vmware player or Virtualbox - Download a Vmware Linux appliance from here http://www.thoughtpolice.co.uk/vmware/, like this one http://downloads.sourceforge.net/thoughtpolicevm/debian-500-i386-netinst.zip... instance, or this one http://downloads.sourceforge.net/thoughtpolicevm/fedora-13-i686.zip which has more packages preinstalled; any really. It should work with Virtualbox too. - After getting it running, go here http://tldp.org/ and start with the guides, like this one for instance http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html ; then the HOW-TOs like that, like that By the time you get to use it in production, it wont be too unfamiliar to you, to say the least.