Could someone please recommend a nice and well
documented database program for a person who
has never used a database?
Postgres is a full-featured option:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/index.html
Easy to install, either from RPM's found at:
http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/binary/v8.1.2/linux/rpms/fedora/
or by building it from source:
http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/source/v8.1.2/