Thanks Steve,

You know I was thinking back on the last 3 months and added up how much money I have spent in books on Linux and I can say that I have spent more money than a single user license upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista.

Has it been worth it? I would say now, absolutely. However there have been a lot of very very frustrating nights were I almost scrapped the whole thing and reverted back to M$.  But I still no very little and have many questions.

The biggest frustration is simply not knowing what I don't know about what I need to know to ask the right question.  The internet is filled with step by step Linux configuration procedures that are so narrowly focused with little or zero insight into WHAT and more important WHY you are actually changing something.  There is no context and no back drop to the configuration and therefore nothing is really learned.  It just poses more questions.

I think there needs to be a series of presentations that answer "I Just installed Linux ... What now?"  Start with general concepts for configuration such as:

What key configuration files control network interfacing with hardware devices and present examples of how they interact.

An overview of the more prominent file servers that can be installed?  What are there strengths and weakness, how are they typically used?  what key configuration files in Linux are needed how does the file server interact with there config files?

What are the different methods of file permissions, and how do they work?  What are the strengths and limitations of each method.  What are the basic config files that interact with permissions.  Examples of when and were to apply and use them.

These are just a start.

Computers are designed to be tools.  They are a means to an end.  Usually that end is not spending all of your valuable time fiddling with your operating system.  Unfortunately in the desktop realm M$ and Apple are King and they set the pace for zero to configured and usable for the average novice to basic user.

Well all get down off my soapbox now and shut up.  Thanks