I'm thinking of learning websphere, and have downloaded the installation
files.

Can anyone with websphere experience post some guide on how to deploy a
simple WAR file? Where to find the DTDs for their descriptors and such. Where
are
the main configuration files, etc. It'll be really helpful.

Since it is running IBM's JVM, it is suppose to be much faster than Tomcat
with Sun JDK right?

What is the cost involves in using WebSphere? I don't mean licensing, just
the cost of maintaining applications. I know that Tomcat is extremely simple
and almost do not need "deploying" if you edit the live files directly. I
don't think it is possible with WS, right?

Does IBM come with their Portal framework?