get the FREE db2 v8.1 file from the IBM website (~ 500MB). Install it then play around with it. I suggest you learn SQL first, although that should only take you at most a week. The experience is best if done using unix, in my opinion. Try some programming with those databases too, like using perl. I'd install the program, make a few tables, insert a few records, then query them like mad. Or better yet, build a website, build some cgi script using either perl or php, then interact with the tables thru the website. Now if you're a hardcore, you can have 2 machines, one acts as a db server, the other a client. Get the client talking to the server.