UC is an applicance, it's not important really that it runs on Linux, you will never have access to Linux. You have a web page which is very similar to Unity that has all of what you need and if needed you get console access via a CLI that is specifically written for UC & CCM not a linux login.
If you've used CM 5+ then it's just like that.
I think anyone who is used to administrating Unity could make the switch over to Connection pretty easily and not have much of a relearning curve at all.
Basically though in Unity you needed to maintain Windows & Unity, in UC you only have to do voicemail stuff. No OS maintaince, we deal with all of it for you.
Your local account team could setup a demo for you if you wanted to get some hands on time.
