I can absolutely relate to what Savage felt when installing Linux.  When I tried it about a year and a half ago, I had problems with Linux not recognizing my ATI Rage Pro video card and my monitor.  I spent a good 8 hours doing research and trying a couple of tweaks on the config. files.  No such luck.  Turns out XFree86 wasn't supporting my card yet.  YUCK!!!

So, I decided to give it a rest.  Here we are about the same time I first tried to use it.  I finally have Linux Mandrake 8.1 up but haven't really fooled around with it to be of any use to me.  I'm thinking of hosting my web page through it and let's see how that goes...