http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html How I do my computing mostly I use a text console I never used Unix (not even for a minute) until after I decided to develop a free replacement for it I chose that design to follow because it was portable and seemed fairly clean. I was never a fan of Unix; I had some criticisms of it too. The most powerful programming language is Lisp. Lisp is no harder to understand than other languages. So if you have never learned to program, and you want to start, start with Lisp.