Hi aliissa
I don't live in Portland In fact I don't even live on your side of the pond, I'm in the UK - I was just aware that Portland is in Oregon.

The LUG in Portland:

http://www.pdxlinux.org/

I am sure they will be willing to help beginners to Linux, these Linux people tend to be friendly fellows - take a look at Neo and PxT

I'm not too familar with the college that you mentioned, but I am sure it will give you a very good beginners introduction to UNIX if that is what the couse is designed to do. Just as a general pointer I would ascertain if they have hands on learning, i.e. if they let you mess around with UNIX machines while you are learning, and it is not just a solely theoretical course. In my experience there is NOTHING more beneficial than learning something in theory and then trying to apply it in practice on a UNIX box, and in a test/learning environment it is even better since you're not worried about messing things up. In fact you often obtain a wider skills base when things go wrong since it then becomes a troubleshooting as well as a learning exercise.

You might also want to look into getting yourself a UNIX shell account, your ISP may give you one for a nominal charge, or you can search the internet for shell accounts. This will be useful to you in your early days of learning UNIX, as you get more advanced you're going to want your own machine, where you can have super user access.

If you need any more help please don't hesitate to ask!

Regards.

well, I think I am on my for a good start. A lot of thanks goes to you guys who helped a lot in the pointing a good direction for me to take.

I have inrolled myself with PCC for a course called "OS:Linux" and another called "Intro to Unix". I should start with those two classes on June 26. I can not wait

I also have managed to get myself a IBM AIX box and it all loaded and ready to go as soon as I am ready

Annnd, I also took Neo advise and I will actually continue on my Certs and education with MS products and then work on integrating my home LAN that include Win2K Pro and Advanced server, with my IBM Unix box

I guess I have my hands full for a while and that should give me a lot of hand-on experience that I will need

Again, Thanks to all who helped here and I will keep you guys updated

Hi...I too am a MCSE who is expanding my certs.
I just finished my Solaris 7 SCSA and I also
am a CCNA. I've done all my test thru self-study.
I just bought a cheap HP workstation on Ebay and
and a book called HP Certified from www.bookpool.com. I've been looking at a few
career sites and for Unix Admins it seems most
companies want HP-UX and Solaris.
I saw a post in this thread where someone mentioned spending $5000 for SCSA. Forget spending
that kind of money. It costs me $2000 and that
included buying a SunBlade 100 for $1000. You can
buy the books from people who have taken the classes from people on Ebay for $200 or less.
Just a few suggestions,

I couldn't agree more! Make sure you search eBay for books, hardware, etc. in your quests! We purchase almost all of our server gear on eBay.