Greetings
 

I just found this forum. Harry will get my attention. My primary interests are nature photography, the business thereof, and things that support the former, e.g., computers. I'm a long time Windows user trying to convert to Linux and need very basic instructional help

There is a simply excellent and quite solid book on digital image work, "Beginning GIMP - From Novice to Professional," is available to assist cutting the ground you appear to want to cut. Although GIMP is not quite Photoshop it is that jolly close to it - for most people - that you may find transition to it your thing... Certainly you'll find in dropping Windows, the reduction in everyday problems a dramatic change but I have to say it took me fully three months to make the transition to Linux into smooth waters.

Phidor.

Distro plays a role
 

Hey! welcome you to the world of FOSS(Free Open Source Software). Your decision of coming here is absolutely correct. It's a great FOSS community where you will find answers for all of your questions or at least some nice piece of advice to resolve ur problem.

But my dear lots of folks got irritated when starts using linux. it depends on the distro you chose to play. By my lil experience i would recommend you to use Ubunto or Fedora . Although Fedora is supported by a much bigger community and developing itself in a robust way. Just have a look here http://fedoraproject.org .

Hope u'll enjoy ur FOSS journey :D

Wish u best of luck

Good to see another person joining in. :)
You may find this useful background: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
This is a good tutorial/ref: http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz