What you want isn't so much a guide, but a good method of searching for answers. Start by keeping three general assumptions:
- Linux can do anything Windows can
- The name for something in Linux will probably be different from Windows
- It will often be faster to do something on command line, than to hunt down the GUI
With that in mind, just make yourself a list of common tasks. "Install a program, check email, add a user account, change desktop background", etc. For example, users in Windows can have admin privileges to install software/etc. In Ubuntu, this is referred to as sudo privs. So if you wanted to know how to give sudo privileges to an Ubuntu account, your Google search would be for
"Ubuntu add user to sudo list". You'll get tons of answers, and the
first result of that search shows exactly what you want. It even gives you a quick runthrough of what sudo is, and how it works.
The biggest problem you're going to face is not being able to find the right words to describe what you want to do, which makes searching harder. And that's where communities like this come in handy - open a thread, describe the problem and your desired solution, and there's bound to be at least one of us that can show you a quick and easy way to get it done.
