Put in simple words, shell is the screen one uses to interact with the operating system. In a broader perspective, there are two basic shell types namely graphical user interface (GUI) and the line user interface (LUI). A line user interface is much more powerful when compared to the graphical interface and linux server versions of most of the distros are LUI by default. LUI is mostly preferred by all computer geeks around the globe who are also well off in linux commands. To a beginner therefore every distro comes with a fairly good desktop version which allows them to have a graphical interface just like the windows operating system. But since linux systems are mainly used for server functionalities like email servers or web servers it is necessary that one pick up the linux commands and switch to linux server versions as it has much more to offer than desktop versions of the same distros.
Root is one of the biggest concepts in the linux world. Root simply means the highest level of anything and everything in linux. A linux system has a user account 'root' by default and this account is bounded with the highest most privileges. A user logged in as root has the ultimate power in a linux system. Again the term 'root' also implies the meaning 'highest level' in general. The root of a user is nothing but the home directory of the user. Similarly the root of the operating system means the highest level where the operating system is installed.
The third yet very important concept to the understood by a beginner is that in the linux world capitalization does matter. Windows except when it comes to passwords does not care about capitalization whereas in linux, an uppercase character is different from a lower case character.
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