Well Rex(Wrecks), that's an interesting point of view, but I like it. The only thing I worry about in suggesting something like FreeBSD is that one might get too frustrated with it and turn back to Windows

I'm sure no matter how much you dislike "RedHate", you probably like Windows even less. My idea was just to get him something that would quickly and easily assimilate, but then again, Redhat does provide so much that you can do in terms of GUI setup, its not even really like *Nix anymore.

Perhaps the best solution would be as you say, use multiple Operating Systems. I know that's what I do... I'm using Debian, GenToo, Mandrake, and Windows XP.

Actually Win2k/XP is pretty tied with FreeBSD in my opinion.

I see what you mean by the frustration factor, but the poster asked for quick learning, typically this means a bit painful as there is a ton of knowlege to assimilate is a short period of time. I like RedHate the least of all the OS's I use. They tweak basic things to make them unique to them. Any OS that tweaks basic things just irritates me. The cool thing about the *nix's is thier similarities, that you can port knowlege from one to the other, RedHate tries to break this, which is another reason not to learn from this platform.

RedHate does have advantages, primarily in support for devices and software. Most software will have a port to RedHate quicker than other *nix's, and they have done quite a good job with driver support "out of the box". The other major advantage is one of the same advantages Perl enjoys, a HUGE online community to glean information from. I actually have several RedHate installations, 2 of them are even withing reach at the point of writting, but they are still my least prefered flavor of OS. To each his/her own though, and just because I don't prefer it, doesn't mean I won't use it :)

"Nothing is sure but death and taxes" I say combine the two and its death to all taxes!

Good point on to each his own. How exactly is Win2k/XP tied with FreeBSD? I have never heard anyone make a claim like this before... I look forward to your response on the matter.

As far as tweaking things to make them unique, you have to agree that Microsoft is the biggest abuser of this... although I guess that's not really the point.

Lets just agree that its important to learn *Nix no matter what the flavor. I think it would be fine to take either direction.