What is EMC ? part II

Thanks to all of you, specially Jon, Tim , Fred Procter, Matt Shaver
( whose two year old posting helped me a lot),Paul and all the others
who are maintaining such a great forum and have contributed so much
for EMC.
Jon, I visited your site and the site you recommended these have
helped me a lot to understand EMC, but I still have some questions :
is the downloadable BDI at www.linuxcnc.org the latest one ? how much
programming knowledge (and in which language) and knowledge about
Linux do I need to start with EMC? Has anyone used EMC for Turning
center or Lathe? What and how much changes will be required for using
EMC for Lathe control? Does EMC support spindle speed control which
is required for threading in turning centers? One of my friend have
Hurbert Churchill's Turning center who's GE's control is dead and we
want to change it with EMC, one of the main problems I see is that
the motors are 3 phase AC and I haven't found any cheap source of 3
phase drives/amplifier, please let me know if anyone knows. I am also
trying to make my own drive using HCTL1100 and IGBT bridge but this
is on paper only,I haven't tried it yet.

Thanks and Regards
Babar