What is the best linux distribution for learning to use many?
First, a bit about my background.. I currently work as a Network Engineer, mainly with Cisco routers/switches and VPN devices. I am thoroughly familiar with Windows, both as a workstation and server, and have one more test to go to complete my MCSE. However, I have no real experience with Linux, and feel like this is both a hole in my personal knowledge and in my resume. 
I can do basic user stuff both from a command line and in Xwindows, but have no real command of it.
That said, I intend to rectify this. I want to start using Linux as my primary operating system on my personal PC, as I feel this is a great first step to really force myself to learn it. I need to know what distribution would be best for me to use. My concern is some of them seem to have a lot of proprietary tools that are not found in other linux distros, I want to find one to learn on that will best allow me to be comfortable on any linux distro I run into in the future. Thanks much for your advice!
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Linux truly is a wonderful operating system! If I’m using a PC, I greatly prefer using it to Windows. It’s much more stable, secure, etc. But you already knew that. =]
Personally, I would suggest you start out with OpenSuSE. It’s easy to use, yet it is very powerful. Its installer is also pretty easy. I recommend that because a lot of businesses that run Linux on their client systems use SuSE (the only difference between that and OpenSuSE is that SuSE contains closed-source programs; therefore, you have to pay for that distro).
I hope this helps! Good luck!
You should download and try Ubuntu
I would use suse 10.1 now it is easy to use and free to download from:
http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/?sourceidint=productsmenu_linuxprofessional
If you want to get it with installation support it costs about £45, but I would guess as you’re pretty conversant with windows, suse should be easy to handle, there’s a GUI for most of it, which gives you a buffer until you get a handle on linux.
Try this pdf for bash scripting:http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.pdf
and the linux documentation prject:http://www.tldp.org/
also: http://www.linuxcommand.org/ and http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/command_line_intro?page=0%2C2
I use only Suse linux on both my laptop & desktop, getting on a bit & only been computing for about 7 years so I don’t think you’ll have much trouble, mail me if you need help.