@mmurfin87: You ask much and my advice is: start small... and don't use the N900 to learn Unix/Linux.

Install e.g. Ubuntu on a partition of your desktop computer or use andlinux or cygwin to run it under Windows. Or use a terminal program like Putty to login at your N900, so you 'll have at least a normal keyboard and screen. In that case, you should first install openssh on your N900.

Then, get acquainted with the commandline and shell scripting. For an editor, you can use vi, but any other will do (I recommend Joe to my students). Familiarize yourself with the unix tools (grep, more, sort, tr, cut, to mention a few). There are many tutorials out there: you might try http://paai.uvt.nl/Paai/Onderw/Compg


GCC and ./configure are needed when you want to compile a program locally. ./configure should be followed by 'make' and 'make install'. Often ./configure will stop because you first have to install additional programs or libraries.


Believe me, Unix and the CLI are a joy to use and extremely powerful. But it takes time to learn and it is not necessary for the everyday use of the N900.

Paai