In that context, "propeller beanies," make me think ¢rappel "genius..." not that they can't be(, I don't know about the people buying them tho?. ) It's just a job. Travel if you must to find the best accredited community college then you can transfer to a university and continue like any doctor every few years from there...

I will second the recommendation of The Linux Documentation Project. In particular, look for Garrels's Introduction to Linux and his Bash Guide for Beginners, and Cooper's Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide.

Unfortunately, most of their documents for server and network administration are somewhat dated. You may need to look elsewhere for that topic; O'Reilly is a good publisher.

Just start using Linux, you can have a Virtual machine to play with.

But first, you need to ask yourself. Why do I want to learn Linux? What's in it for me?

If you find more motivation, from answering those question, then there's a lot of information on the web; since you were able to find Linuxquestions.org forum. I assume you know how to search the web to find relevant info and help that you need.

Here's a link to start with: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matlo...nuxInstall.pdf

Don't jump so fast to learn advance stuff, basic stuff is important it will take your skills to solid ground.

Good luck!!