I'm a bit late to the party. I've found the Magiea crew to be pretty useful, especially on IRC.
But you guys here are exceptional.
Ian, you're far in advance of "pretty good on linux". You've got me to my destination several times.
All my boxes are Mageia (bar one which is a CENT host server for virtual machines in a mission critical role) as Mageia just works (apart from mdadm on my desktop which is a complex issue, but I've worked around it).
I personally hate the old RTFM, especially these days, as linux seems to be forking more and more, the file systems aren't the same between distros, so what will resolve an issue on one distro may not on another. And newer packages/tools superseeding older ones alsom complicate issues. The progress linux is seeing is incredible.
I know the Raspberry Pi has been praised, criticised, awarded & hated, but I think it's playing an important role, especially for the younger generations who are used to GUI's and a wealth of tools that just didn't exist even 10 years ago.
I know I myself spend a lot of time reading beginner guides to stuff like Raspberry Pi, and I learn heaps. I'm finally writing scripts that actually do stuff. Not just editing config files anymore.
But I agree with all the comments above. Community is very important. It was in fact Aussie John that first sent me a physical copy of Mandriva to get me going!
PS, Hi John, been ages since we communicated. Glad to see you're still playing with Mageia.