I only really got into Linux mainly because windows was awfull at networking my Ataris. ( admittedly, I am awfull at networking )
I found a page about using RedHat and SLIP to get the Atari talking to PC, and it went from there!
Since then, I have found that OS/2 is also a very good networking OS as well, and I have an OS/2 box still talking to both my Atari TT and Falcon, and also the Linux box, and windows will talk to both OS/2 and Linux, but not the Atari, so in order to get data to/from the Windows / Atari mchines, I have to via Linux or OS/2.
I found a page about using RedHat and SLIP to get the Atari talking to PC, and it went from there!
Since then, I have found that OS/2 is also a very good networking OS as well, and I have an OS/2 box still talking to both my Atari TT and Falcon, and also the Linux box, and windows will talk to both OS/2 and Linux, but not the Atari, so in order to get data to/from the Windows / Atari mchines, I have to via Linux or OS/2.
another one is Office XP ... if you delete or move to say a different folder the Office XP links from the start menu. It'll install them back on for you ... great! With Linux it did exactly what I tell it to do and nothing more
... Oh and the software is free and normally non bloat
. I installed it and within 20 mins it had crashed 4 times. Win2k is ok but it seems to start every service it can 

So there are some (educational) places which have Linux systems 