Mandrake is good for n00bs too. Skip DOS. DOS is nothing like the command line in linux. The file structure is completely different. For example in DOS the mian directory is
c:\>
In linx it is
/
To view a directory in DOS you might do something like
dir /w/p
in Linux you might do something like
ls -al
The two are comepletly different beasts in thier own right. Basically you have windows and then you have UNIX based systems.
Linx, BSD, Solaris, AIX, OS X is all built off the idea and structure of UNIX.
I recomend before you start reading up on UNIX history. It will take you maybe an hour to get the idea.
http://www.levenez.com/unix/history.html#01 This is a chart to show all the evolutions of UNIX and the OS's like LINX it spawned.
Here is a good quick readers digest of the history
http://www.crackmonkey.org/unix.html And for when you get going I wrote a intro for n00bs like yourself.
http://www.UnderGroundNews.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/9/120.html let us know if you need help, you will need help.