[jk215]

Live CD's are a great option to test the waters. You wont be too out of place since the desktop GUI's are very similar to a Windows machine. What seperates the men from the boys is working on your system through the command line interface (terminal). This is the essence of any Linux machine. Read some beginner tutorials on the Linux filesystem and your basic terminal commands.

You will learn it just like any other system, taking it one step at a time. Make it a goal to learn how to complete all the tasks you would do through a GUI on the command line. Create, view, edit, delete files and directories. Unpack, compile and install programs. Run systems updates. Etc.. etc..

Just take it a step at a time. Google everything and you will be fine.