I fighting the learning curve

Agh... Linux is so fickle... My mastery of the command line needs a lot more work. I'm so useless without a gui. I've been trying to configure Mandriva on my new thinkpad. It's proving to be pretty difficult, almost like learning how to walk again, except in a different environment. At this age it might be beneficial though as M$ is slowly tightening its grip on its users, if I can get passed this learning curve, I will be free from M$'s hands. I can't wait.