Is knowing the Blender internal renderer settings for materials and textures important for using the Cycles renderer? I have been learning Blender for the past several months, and I just discovered the Blender 3D: Noob to Pro wikibook. Although I'm not a complete novice, I have started from the beginning of the book to fill in the holes in my knowledge (since I have used various tutorials until now). If I plan on just using cycles render from now on, would I be wasting my time to go through the "Section 2C: Materials and Textures" part? I have a basic understanding of materials and textures, but as I said, there are several holes in my knowledge there. Is knowing the Blender internal renderer settings for materials and textures important for using the Cycles renderer?
Short answer: nope.

Cycles and BI work very differently, consequently materials are completely different for the two, both in the way they are defined and calculated.  I think learning BI first often does more damage than good when switching to Cycles.

I should note that some people do say new users should start with BI since it is (arguably) simpler than Cycles.  I heartily disagree with this view though.  Cycles may be a little more complex to some people due to it's much greater flexibility, but I don't see any reason why starting with BI would help one learn Cycles.

I think the idea that BI is "simpler" is a misnomer though, it's just different.  Personally, I find Cycles's nodes to be a much more intuitive way of defining materials than BI's wall of settings for everything under the sun.  Which one really is simpler is a matter of opinion, so neither one comparatively blows the other out of the water and should.