Question : Basic linux Commands

Hi,
I am a regular desktop windows user, but now want to learn about Linux. I have windows xp sp2 Dell D600 laptop with 512 memory every thing is ok and i got vmware 4.1 to learn Linux. I install Linux server on vmware software by creating new machine. well Linux is a dos based system, is it? or we can use it in graphical mode if yes then how we can? My 2nd question is when i do ping a host like ping www.yahoo.com, it give me error no such host found?. And also when I try to trace route it give me network error i thing my network settings are not ok in vmware machine i set it to NAT ..all is that please let me know the basic commands to operate Linux. Hmm I know some commands but don't know how to use them ....

Answer : Basic linux Commands

WHY are you using red hat 6.2?  That's a 5+ year old version.  The problem is most likely that Red Hat 6.2 doesn't recognize the network adapter VMWare is providing.  You would have to find drivers for that.  Much simpler solution is to use a CURRENT version of Linux.  Red Hat is now completely commercial (using the red hat name), but you can download Fedora Core 3 which is the current version of the free release of Linux based on Red Hat - or pick another distro entirely... download your choice at www.linuxiso.org