I am absolutely new to Linux and computers in general. I am currently reading and trying to learn as much as I can about it. I'm currently reading "Linux in easy steps-by Mike McGrath however I don't see any mention of loading Linux on to a Mac. I don't want to screw up my machine by putting something on it that will conflict with the OS. Thanks for your help.

Apple used RISC processors in past, then they switched to PC platform, and now they are back to RISC, aka ARM architecture. What architecture is your Mac? If you are not too low on RAM you could run Linux in a virtual machine, 2 GB of RAM dedicated to Linux is enough for learning Linux.

Emerson, thanks for the quick reply. I don't know what architecture I have on my Mac. As I've said, I have very little technical knowledge of computers so I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to technical terms. I'll research the reply and get back to you. Thanks again for the response.
Best,
Chris

P.S I found it. it's x86-64

OK, this makes it easier. You can install Linux to your hard drive, it involves making changes to the hard drive layout and is potentially dangerous, if you get it wrong your El Capitan may not boot any more or even may need to be reinstalled. The other option is virtual machine. I know there is Parallels for Mac, it can run Linux. Maybe there is some other virtualization software for Mac you could use I'm not aware of.
Another option would be to get an i5 refurbished laptop from Amazon or eBay, they cost around $250 and leave your Mac intact.

Thanks again for the quick response. I'll be getting a used laptop/desktop to work on building my skills.

Best,
Chris

Apple has a full iOS C and Unix development kits installed, extremely easy to use and work without any hacking. It is not 100% open source however.

freeBSD unix is already installed on El Capitan - open the Terminal to see it

i have a hard time believing one could not google that, as here in lq, and then get answers about RISC which actually are misleading answers (not totally truthful answers)

el capitan is no longer supported. if possible upgrade the OS to the most recent OS supported.

Sorry for the late reply. I'll be uploading the upgrade to the El Capitan shortly. Thanks for the reply.