Per usual on a letsun thread of any duration, a lot of weirdos take over, saying a lot of weird stuff that does not make a lot of sense.
Classic skiing is a lot like power walking, but with subtlety. It's fairly easy to learn to shuffle around on a golf course, but the technique is more difficult to master for most. Double poling is fairly important, and at the championship level they have to go out of their way to make courses hillier so skiers have to stride at least part of the way. The basic techniques are kick (i.e., foot plant not your other leg kicking back!) and glide, double pole for flats and easy ups, kick-double pole, and herring bone for steep uphills.
At first skating is more challenging because the techniques are not really natural and it requires some balance. A decent alpine skier can pick up skate technique more readily than someone V1 (steep hills or long grinding hills) V2 (flats and gradual hills), alternate V2 (flats and gentle descents), no poles (sprints or some downhills), and single stick (steep uphills).
However, when you break down the techniques (classic vs. skating) they are remarkably similar. Balance over once ski at a time, complete weight shift with weight completely over the glide foot.