I have a couple questions about mainly Linux, probobly Unix in general. I'd really appreciate it if you could answer as many as you can.

1) TAR files, Tar.bz files... What are they? Come kind of compression? How can I use them via command lind? Why should I use them?
2) What is a book or tutorial or reference I can find for manually editting configuration files. Many distrobutions do not have a "Control Panel", so I would like to know how to mess around with that kind of stuff without a utility. And also, which files should I learn how to mess around with (I know that they're found in the etc folder... why is it called etc?)
3) How do I install drivers (modules) into the kernel, after I have installed my system?
4) How do I recompile the kernel and replace my old one
5) What is a makefile, and how do I use/create them?
6) Where are things installed to when I use a RPM or something? They're is bin, usr/bin, and a couple other bins. If I extract a zipped application, where should I install it to (ie mozilla firebird).
7) What is a book that will teach me things like what I've mentioned? I've seen two kinds of books really. 1) Teaches you how to use office applications, ect. Like.. Push file..new..wordfile to start a new wordfile 2) Network administration and very advanced linux topics.
How can I find a route between those two? I'm not intrested in network administration or hosting a web server or anything, I just want to learn how linux works and how I can get it to work for me

Thanks for reading!! I'd really appreciate any answers!