I gave a short talk about Linux at my current University. Here are OpenOffice.org presentation , generated PDF and even generated Powerpoint presentation of the used slides.

If you are a n00b linux user and your main fear is a console (empty screen or window with blinking cursor waiting for your input) then I would recommend you first to glance over any good general GNU/Linux Reference Card. For instance you can check out the one created for my favorite GNU/Linux Debian distribution. It gives a very brief summary of the common Linux commands as well as specific Debian commands you end up using often than the others. By glancing over reference card first you would precondition yourself to go through tutorials while recalling the commands you saw in the reference card (which should become your buddy for first months of Linuxed life anyway).

Next step would be to go through some nice bash introductory tutorial, additional references and read tips and tricks of others like from Gentoo Forums.

Then if you feel like doing scripts you can read a nice tutorial Bash by example.

By now (previous steps might take from 1/2 hour up to a few days, depending on your attention and desire to learn all bits) you will know heck a lot! and definetly that time wouldn't be wasted -- every minute of reading now can end up being hours in the future if you don't use bash as efficiently as you could. From now on you would need just a lot of practice to get used to new knowledge.