I learned Unix on my dad's Tandy Model 16 machine -- one of the first commercially available Unix micros (along with the Sun Workstation).
XENIX (Microsoft's Unix) came with a program called "learn" which was a tutorial. It would show you how to do something, then give you a goal and drop you into a mock shell. Most of the commands had their usual effects inside the mock shell, but you could always quit the lesson and restart if you screwed up.
That's how I picked up the basics. When I discovered Unix machines -- and Linux -- on my university campus some eleven years later, all the old skills translated and I learned some new ones along the way.
XENIX (Microsoft's Unix) came with a program called "learn" which was a tutorial. It would show you how to do something, then give you a goal and drop you into a mock shell. Most of the commands had their usual effects inside the mock shell, but you could always quit the lesson and restart if you screwed up.
That's how I picked up the basics. When I discovered Unix machines -- and Linux -- on my university campus some eleven years later, all the old skills translated and I learned some new ones along the way.