I just leave linux to my N900 and a couple servers i maintain. I run some Virtual machines to test them on my desktop. The rest are all dedicated servers. But i used to spent hours with configuring, building networks, servers, routers for the learning curve.

God i feel old lol (32+). I'm afraid if a beginner starts with from scratch, he would run to his 'familiar' Windows desktop. But then again nobody is the same. And there are hundreds of distro;s to explore