Cygwin

I wanted to get started with Unix and heard about this program Cygwin. It seems like this program is just a huge database filled with other programs for download (Linux, Unix, Ruby, Python, etc). I tried becoming a bit more familiar with Cygwin by downloading it and watching some videos but overall I feel rather overwhelmed. All these videos aren't all that specific. I went to this site http://www.unixdownload.net/ to find there are many different versions of Unix. What version should i download? Should i try becoming more familiar with Cygwin?

Just get some live cds and try them all till you find one you like.

If you want to learn unix system.

I suggest you to download CentOS and Oracle Virtual Box.

These are all free to download and install.

Try to install CentOS into Oracle Virtual Box then enjoy it.

Cygwin is not a unix system. It just supports some unix commands that you can use in window system.