Definite Beginner Questions
 

Could someone give me a brief explanation of the meaning of things like "var" or "grep" and "ps-aux". Or is there a reference spot on the internet for commands etc. I am totally knew to Linux and have had a machine dropped in my lap. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you are looking for a good Unix/Linux beginner book. I belive Linux in a Nutshell is a decent one to start with. You might also want to get a copy of Linux Unleashed for times when you need to dig a bit deeper.

There are tons and tons of places on the internet with information on Unix/Linux. I usually just do a google.com search.

OK, Thanks. Thats kind of what I was thinking.

In your Linux system you have much documentation. Try man command, aprops command .

Something I discovered recently was the "info" command, its a hyperlinked curses documentation, much more user friendly than man pages.

see the listing of the /usr/bin directory (ls /usr/bin).
then either use info or man to see what they're for. i think most of the commands u can use on your box are listed in that directory. u can learn a lot from there and experimenting with them.

the linux documentation website is also cool.
www.linuxdoc.org

A good online reference for Linux commands I include in my signature... see below.

-trickykid

Acid_kewpie's sig links to a pretty damned good site for htmled Linux/Unix books. You could take a sneaky peek there too.