If I were looking for a Linux indoctrination course, explaining to me how to use GCC, how to use some sort of package management system, how to use the command line (eg, how do i know which commands/programs are valid/installed/callable?), and most importantly, how to learn/where to go to learn all this stuff so it makes sense?

For instance, when I say how to use GCC, I mean what the hell is ./configure. What is it, how do I use it, why does it exist/what other options are/were there?

If I want to start at the very basic level, I want to customize a linux system for myself, but I can't do that because I don't know what tar.gz is (ok I know its a linux zip file) and whats even more interesting/confusing is that I thought linux didn't have file extensions? I thought there was a big file somewhere listing the permissions of each file and that was it.

While we're at it, what are my package management options? What are their differences? What do each of them *do* exactly? I thought when I compiled something it just gets turned into executable bits. What are all these executable formats (eg: PE, and other ones I can't remember)? Why are there so many cryptic commands that do the same thing (apt-get install vs dpkg?)

On the command line I can type "vi blahblahblah" and it will open up a vi editor, or I can type "top" and it will show me stuff. Thats all good and fine, but how do I know what I can type? Why can I run vi from the command line but I have to type the full extension of other programs?

I know what the X-Window system is. I've followed tutorials on how to work with different window managers and its all fairly simple. Why can't I do that on my n900?

Basically I want to know what is everything, why is it included, how does it work, why does it work, when does it work, what does it do, why don't we use this other better thing, whats the difference between competitors? and other questions.