I'm very used to working on a linux machine, programing in Unix terminals all through college. That said, I have never needed to work with linux distributions or doing more than some apt-get software installation.

I need to make a CD. I need a machine to be able to boot from this CD. I would like there to be a unix terminal that runs a script automatically. This script must be able to mount an NFS drive, do simple networking (TCP/IP), and update the software on the machine running it through deleting/adding files.

I guess I need an .iso for a linux distro that has files and a script already on it that can be used to update a bunch of these specific machines?

Should I go through the LFS project in order to learn how to do this?

I'm pretty lost and need some help. Thanks!

A bit easier would be Gentoo Linux.

Could you please elaborate? Can I get a Gentoo Linux distribution that is bare bones and then easily add the files that need to change as well as the script I need to write that updates the machine that boots off of it?

I think SUSE Studio allows creation of "your own distro"and I know Debian has tools to make a customised image too though I don't recall how I did it as I simply googled around a bit until I found it. I think I used Remastersys and few tools for working with .iso files.
Then there are more complex ways of diong things like setting up a network install server or using LTSP.

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So, can you confirm that in order to do what I am looking for, I need to customize a linux distro/image to include the files that need to be changed as well as a script that executes as soon as the machine boots off of the image? I can make a software update cd by just customizing a suse or debian distro and burning it to a disk?

NO. I can cinfirm that if you want to create a custom Linux installer then SUSE Studio and Remstersys work.
How do you wish to install this Linux version? If you want to create a customised installer on DVD or CD I know that I've done that on a live Debian box and installed it in a VM.
If you need to install it some other way then I'm not sure creating cusromised install images will help.
The details, also, with customised scripts must be possible but I can't confirm how easy they are to install.

Ok, I don't think I understand what a customized installer is. What I'm looking for, is to be able to stick a disk (CD/DVD) into a machine, boot off of it (restart the machine and run the CD), and the disk magically puts files onto this machine after mounting an NFS thumbdrive (i assume the new files that update the software are on here). I am told that there are these things called linux distributions that I can use to accomplish this task. If I put one of these linux distributions onto an iso and burn it to a disk, the target machine will magically run this linux code and install the updates to the software it runs on normally by copying files from the NFS thumbdrive to the target machine's memory.

This may not make any sense, in which case I apologize, but if you understand what I'm trying to say, do you have a suggestion? Is a custom Linux installer what I'm asking for? I need to find a way to build this magic CD that updates these machines.

Take a look at the things I mentinoned. Yes, you can create customised installers to install what you wish.
Don't forget though that drive letters are not a given on non identical hardware and possibly not on identical.
Unless it's Pi then just create an image, for example.

Thanks 273. Apparently what I want to do is take a liveCD, edit the liveCD, go to the boot-script for it, and append my update script to that. That way, I boot off the liveCD, my script runs, and the software gets updated.

Yes, that's what I was guessing. It ought not to be difficult using the aforementioned, and other similar, tools but it's one of those things which fewer people do so it just takes a little more reading.