Learning FreeBSD

Question

Can anyone tell me the average time that it would take a complete novice, whose background is mostly Windows XP, to go through the FreeBSD handbook and get sufficient mastery to set-up a server from the ground up?

Answer 1

It's impossible to say. Not only is it highly dependent upon what sort of person you are, but it also depends on what exactly you are doing. 

Being able to get Apache operational is a simple matter of following step-by-step tutorials, you could do that in a matter of hours. Being able to run a multi-user server competently takes a lot longer, and the handbook isn't nearly enough.