Are there any Linux distributions that come pre-loaded with hands-on, guided tutorials or other learning software aimed at teaching a new user how to work with Linux?
I'm aware that some distros are naturally easier for new users to pick up than others, but I'm particularly hoping there's one out there that directly teaches the user. I've tried going the independent "learn by using" route with an Ubuntu VM, but would find it much more helpful and fitting to my personal learning and motivational mechanisms to have something that could guide me through the process.
To be a bit more specific, I'm not just looking for a general "Linux for Beginners" tutorial (although that also would be a good start). I'm hoping to eventually be as familiar and comfortable in Linux as I am in Windows (System Administrator).
Best Answer
I started to make this as a joking comment, but I'm actually going to go ahead and make it a serious suggestion. Check out Linux From Scratch, which isn't a distro per se, but rather a book and toolkit for building your own running Linux system from source, without a distro.
If you were new to computers in general, this clearly would be jumping right off into the deep end. But if you're a competent sysadmin with another OS, it really shouldn't involve too much that you can't handle. And it will give you a good, hands-on understanding of what you really need underneath the shiny KDE or Gnome hood to make the system actually work.
At the GUI level, modern Linux distributions are basically almost like Windows or OS X, but with a whole host of different conventions and oddities that will drive you crazy (until, we hope, you grow to love and/or tolerate them). And because it's put together from the work of tens of thousands of different developers, sometimes the integration isn't perfect and the underlying bits poke through.
So, consider starting from the underlying bits and see where that gets you.