I think its pretty amazing how people are jumping on linux. For instance I'm known in my store as a guru for some reason because i have basic knowledge of whats going on with computers and my co-worker is now trying out Ubuntu also a girl i wanted to talk to(thats a long story lol). I used linux since Redhat dominance days in the 90's even though I'm still young 25* have had a fair share of usage from mandrake before Mandriva, Suse, and all others. Linux is wonderful Chris i would honestly say use a bleeding edge type of Distro after Ubuntu so you can break things and fix it is the only way you will learn more rapidly. Shoot i remember when just getting x to run on non supported hardware and running vesa mode was only option(still love those days of being a underdog). But I'm glad you taking part into learning linux.