@queenz
i understand how it feels to be totally lost, its kinda like being drowning rat
they may not be saying it very nicely but the truth is you probably would learn more if you search for these answeres or go to your local bookstore and pick up a few books

if you really wanna learn my suggestion would be to pick up an old p3 or p4 machine from a garage sale or ebay, install various distributions, software packages etc.. and see what happens and dont be affraid to break it
sometimes the best way to learn how something works is to break it and figure out how to fix it
this forum will always be here for the occasional question that's what we're here for

Virtual Box is the ideal tool for this sort of thing.

So you want something that's pretty much the same as Debian, that isn't Debian, but you don't want to actually create anything to have it, then? Does that sum it up?

good point, a virtual machine is even easier then a real machine

i remember when i first installed linux, my first linux distro was yellowdog champion server on a powerbook g3 'wallstreet'
i only knew a handful of commands..
cp, rm, mkdir, rmdir, cd

i didnt even know how to clear the screen at a prompt

i lost count of how many times i blew up my linux install and had to reinstall linux in the process of learning but dern it i learned

rpm does the same thing as dpkg, except it installs rpm files instead of deb files. Yum is the Red hat analog of apt

Please....

1. let's not have any more flaming and/or comments which could be taken personally.

2. QueenZ; Please look at the various suggestions for modifying your behavior.

This thread is pretty pointless by now and should just be laid to rest..

Based on the general trend---plus the report just filed on the above statement, this thread is hereby laid to rest.

Previous admonitions to QueenZ remain in effect.