Any general advice for a newbie?
 

I'm currently in the process of learning *nix. Is there a preferred way of doing this? Are there any good or must read resources on the web? Are there a books I should get? Should I pay money for Redhat, or just go ahead and load Slackware since I'll need to know more than Redhat anyway?

Thanks for any advice.

The most important thing is to have patience. Also google is your friend

this is a good newbie site:
http://www.linuxcommand.org/

If you have decided to go with slackware you may also give a try to the slackware book:
http://www.slackbook.org/

*EDIT*

I wouldn't buy REDHAT. Not unless you want to build a server for a network and you want to have auto-update.

Redhat is a good commercial product but not a tool for learning UNUX-linux.

yeah thats a very important thing , you also shouldn't give up because every thing is different in linux so it will take some time but in the end the reward is worth it ;)

Hey,
I found the best way of learning linux was to set myself projects such as setting up various services and automation tasks. I bought alot of unix books and read them whenever I got chance, and tried to apply what I had read on my network. I think it certainly helps to have at least 2 *nix boxes, especially if you plan to use network services - makes things more interesting.
With regard to your choice of distribution, I'd certainly suggest slackware over redhat. Slack's install/configuration/maintenance is alot more hands on allowing you to learn and take advantage of exactly how customizable and how much control you have over linux.
I found I learned alot by using Gentoo linux aswell. During the install alone you learn about chrooting, mount points, network configuration, and kernel compiles - all skills that will certainly come in handy in the future. The Gentoo support forums are great too and the HOWTO Wiki is very useful for the novice.

With regard to books, the books which helped me and what I still refer to are;
Unix Made Easy by John Muster
Essential System Administration by AEleen Frisch
Aswell as service specific books from O'Reilly
I really recommend buying books from Amazon's used section, most my books come from there and I've yet to have a damaged one.
There are lots of distribution specific support sites which are great, but one site that is really useful regardless of what you decide to use is The Linux Documentation Project [tldp.org]
They have loads of HOWTO's and information on pretty much everything.
Hope this helps.
Good luck,
Tom

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/Manuals/ - all the manuals for all the GNU tools

and don't forget the man pages!

type man command to read about that command. It's great if you forget the syntax for a command or don't know what a command does.

type man man for more information about it.

also, The Linux Bible is a very good book.