A comment and some questions.

[Travis Newman]

>All this rambling brings me to my questions:
>
>1) Where is a good resource for learning Linux.  I need both quick 
>"How To"s and some in-depth reference material.
>
>2) I want to add a SCSI card and a SCSI 4MM tape drive to a already
>configured system that doesn't have them now.  Is there a re-probe
>method that would detect and load the necessary drivers to allow me to
>use that tape drive?  
>
>Thanks for listening.
>
>Steve Bromley
>  
>
First off Steve, welcome to Ubuntu! I think you picked a good distro to 
start on (It made my not very technologically inclined girlfriend switch 
to Linux, if that tells you anything). I don't know how you never had 
the urge for Linux before :) I've been using it since I found out it 
existed (about 3 months after I got my first computer). I didn't know 
anything about it, so I kept getting frustrated, going back to Windows, 
getting the Linux urge again, getting frustrated again, etc... until I 
really became comfortable with it. So my first advice is to STICK WITH 
IT. It's worth it. Now for your first question, for the quick how-tos, 
forums, wikis, and mailing lists are the best in my experience. The 
ubuntu forums (http://www.ubuntuforums.org) have some great howtos, and 
the wiki on www.ubuntulinux.org is growing pretty well. That's one 
benefit of Ubuntu. It has a great community. As far as in-depth 
material, I'd suggest the O'Reilly books on Linux. They've always been 
great in my experience. Unfortunately the books aren't "open source" so 
you'll have to buy them, or download them in pdf format from your 
favorite file sharing network if you don't mind a little bit of legally 
questionable conduct. It's pretty easy to find what you're looking for 
though. I've found in depth tutorials and such on the web in just a few 
minutes of searching with http://www.google.com/linux and, with the 
exception of some distributions doing things a little differently, they 
work like a charm.

So I've rambled a lot now, and I'm sure some people will have some more 
to offer to you on your first question. As for your second question, I 
have no clue, but I'm assuming yes. Someone else will have to give you 
the how's on that one, though.

Again, welcome to the community, and I hope things go well for you here :)
Travis Newman