Suspect am out on a limb a bit -- may be the only person in the entire universe who's too geeky to be *quite* a Mac-consumer and too dumb to be *quite* a winux lizard :-)
In passing: was "winux" a result of a Mac keyboard, or is it a hint about how you react to Linux and stuff?
Sorry = linux wizard spoonerised!
Anyway: Scripting in Linux is something lots of us do, mostly in small doses, who are a long way from Doing It For Our Job. In fact we're mostly amateurs who've accumulated little increments over the years, and are beginning to get it together, Nonetheless, we get stuff done, we understand what it's like getting started, and mostly we don't try to be clever (and mostly we couldn't be, anyway).
That's probably the level I'm at, actually...
So fire away. If there's something you'd like to try but don't see how, just bring it up on the list. And, yes, do look at books and things. "Linux in a Nutshell" is a handy reference
real life it's better to develop your scripts in the context of something *you* want to achieve, and ask questions as they come up while you're trying to do that.
That's the only approach that ever made sense to me so far! And it's a good explanation of why trying to learn Windows-style programming never made much sense to me: every time I thought of a simple project I wanted to do, I'd get told it was Bad & Wrong...
As I say, the fact that I now feel more Validated as a Part-Time Geek is absolutely wonderful...
Regards, Ruth