I am a middle school technology teacher. I have been using a couple of Linux servers for the past two years. I started out as a total newbie - I didn't know anything. I had was telnetting in to a server and using Pine or Pico. I heard about this free server operating system called Linux.
Every teacher likes free stuff.
Plus, the software cost too much. I bought my first set of Linux CDs from the Linux Mall. It took about a month of messing around in my free time to figure out how to install RedHat 5.0 and Netatalk, so it could port to my Mac lab. I had working in time to make accounts for a summer school class. If you read this and have a Linux story to tell . . .