Despite what I have read in other letters, I think you are doing a great job of balancing the advanced, technical subjects with those of the novice, intro type. His Highlands war exists only in his imagination. I've been using Linux for an even shorter time than Troy has, but have quite a different take on MS vs. Linux. Linux is a UNIX clone, and UNIX is a multi-user system. It has important work to do and it is probably not going to expend a lot of effort looking after you .
Nobody remains a beginner.
Then you look for a better place to work. Linux is not ready to take over the desktop, but the server war is over and Windows NT is not the winner. They got there first and offer the most. When the casual user discovers that one local expert is worth 1000 e-mails to MS support, then Linux will begin to take over the desktop. We don't need standards.