It's likely that your Internet, school, or company networking experience is as a user, not as a network administrator. When you set up your own network, then you will be the network administrator for your own network. Don't let the idea that being a network administrator is an all too difficult task. If you use the right software and hardware, administering a small home, office, or classroom network can be a piece of cake . More about that further down in this article.
Computers connected to the Internet are a mixture of all sorts of hardware and software.
You can connect most any desktop computer to the Internet whether its operating system is Linux, Mac OS, Windows, or whatever. In like manner but on a much smaller scale, you can connect desktop or laptop computers running Linux, Mac OS, Windows and other personal computer OSs to your home, small office, or classroom network. It is very easy to mix Linux and Windows PCs on the same small network these days. There are lots of good reasons to network your home, office, or classroom. However, if you already are convinced that you should network your computers, you might want to skip to the Getting Connected section further down.