Now What? :o)

[-james]

My Y2K resolution is to get out of the Microsoft only rutt that I'm in and
get LINUX running on an extra box I've got, and learn a new non-microsoft
language. I've looked around, and I really like what I see in python.  I've
got a bunch of newbie questions and I appologise in advance if you've gone
over these before:

I'll be working with the language on NT and LINUX boxes; Are there any
issues with writing code to run on both platforms that I should be aware of
?

I'm almost through the online tutorial, and I'm hooked. I don't see any info
on coding GUI  forms though. Can anyone recommend a website, sample code, or
a good book that covers how to do this? Are GUI forms a platform dependant
issue? I'm coming from a world of drag and drop and, from what I gather,
this done programatically in python.

I saw some conflicting articles on Amazon.com about source code On said
python source must always be a text file; another one mentioned that python
source code can kinda be compiled to byte code (forgive me if I'm off on
this) and ran using a Java virtual machine. Is this true? Or are text files
my only choice? How about pickle & unpickle? Where do they  fit in to this
picture?

I would greatly appreciate *ANY*  words of wisdom, advice, or encouragement
you wish to graciously bestow upon me regarding these question or regarding
questions you know I should be asking but did not.

Thanks In advance for you help and kindess,


-james

(To email me directly simply replace NoSpam in my address with jbragg)