i have installed a ubuntu 8.04.01 in my pc. although i am having some problems i can use it.
but i am posting this for a different reason. i want to learn linux inside out, to understand its programming and stuff. i should say it beforehand that i am no programmer and have very limited or to say negligible knowledge about computer hardware or software. so please can somebody suggest me some sites from where i can gain knowledge about stuff.

Hi,
there are hundreds of web pages with linux tutorials. The following are just a few of them.
http://www.tuxfiles.org/
http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Beginners/
http://www.thelinuxnewbie.com/
http://www.linuxhotbox.com/adminguide/index.html
http://tldp.org/
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://www.linuxdocs.org/
http://www.howtoforge.com/

Look through the ones for beginners first and if you have any specific questions or doubts try to google the answer (e.g. 'linux command line beginners' or 'linux nvidia', etc) There's actually a linux google search: http://www.google.com/linux

Reading this stuff is obviously important, but most importantly you need to learn linux by using it. You could install 2 or more linux systems on your computer so that you could use one for experimenting, trying out some commands, etc. and the other one for things that you've tried out.

Good luck!

"Beginning Linux Programming" from Wrox