I have been in computers for 30 years and know everything about MS, but nothing about anything else. Been developping websites (inter alia) running on MS servers using ASP's and vbScripts which apparently does not work under Unix.

My own website is being hosted on a Unix server and I need to extract data out of a database and all kinds of other little things.

I would like to set up a Unix server on my network to practice on. I have a good pentium based computer for the purpose. Plenty of Internet bandwith, so downloading is no problem

1) What version of Unix should I use and where can I find it?

2) What scripting languages should I look at to attain the same results?

3) What tools are available and where can I get them?

4) What tutoring aids are available, and where can I find them.

Ps.
In my country dollars are very expensive (many people work for less than thirty US$ per week) and buying something that will only be used a few months is not really an option.