UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have been wanting to get much deaper into the world of computers for quite some time. I know a lot of c++, and plenty of website programming, and decided that the next step should be Unix.

But here's the thing - I know nothing about Unix. I installed it and everything, but it just seemed like an advanced form of DOS to me. Is there anyway to make it more user friendly? Not that complicated bothers me, I just want to doa lot of stuff with it, and windows seems to offer more of the things that I need with a computer... but Unix is supposed to be the best, so that's why I'm having trouble understanding why it's just a glorified DOS.

I am wandering, is the idea behind Unix for you to program your own user interface? Is this why Unix beats windows, because with time and effort and can be everything you need it to be? I can only guess that this may be closer to the case based on a few things I have read...

The other issue is this - I can't be without a computer for more than a week, and I only have one computer to make a unix computer... I konw Unix would take longer than a week to learn how to use in any way useful, does anyone have any suggestions for me there? I guess I can go to my local internet cafe to check e-mail, and put everything else I do on the comp on hold for a while...

okay, well enough babling, thanks in advance to anyone who took the time to read this, and a special thanks to those who are willing to answere my questions and concerns.

-edit- Forgot one thing - how is the world of gameing on Unix? Can you play pretty much the same games that you can on Windows? I am mostly concerned about my account on World Of Warcraft. Any help and suggestions on the game front would be awesome too.

It's well known that video games for unix or ermmm.... well... you just dont really get any decent ones.

But in terms of user interface and being more like windows I think you should check out GNOME and KDE (X windowing desktop environments). [Hope I haven't patronised you there ]

I've been running dual boot with WinXP and SuSE for a while now and have just deleted windows altogether. Essentially. Once you learn to appreciate the *nix systems you'll never look back

EDIT | If you do install KDE etc it will not take long to learn the basics. I can also recommend the "Unix for Dummies" book from the dummies series of text books. I read it front to back in 3 days and absorbed much very quickly (it really is the basics though..... unix does LOTS )

I would also say that the glorified DOS analogy could be looked at more accurately as:
DOS is a very retarded, illegitimate stepchild of UNIX

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