Hey Louis, I was in your position almost a year ago. I started off at ArsDigita.com, and came from a windowsish background. After reading Phillip and Alex's book, and finaly getting the ArsDigita pun (I'm not in to music or hisory or latin) I started to mess around with ACS (1999 was fairly recent then, and PGSQL wasn't in a state that I considered reliable enough for my goals).
Anyway, the point: By installing on various platforms with various walkthroughs I was able to learn only what was missing from X walkthrough at a time. Most I have learned about Linux, I have learned from trying to get Oracle to work on my RH-7.0 box.
If you want to learn SQL or run a site right away, then advanced walkthroghs are what you need, at least until somthing goes wrong. Like me sitting in new house with a Duron 750 and a Zoot CD, and not knowing how to properly recompile the kernel so it works with my Chip)
However in light of your post I have come to think that if the newbie community grows, It may be nice to make a newbie section in the discussion forum, and even some newbie docs on the web site.
Good luck Louis, and I hope I will be able to apply whatever knowledge I gain/have gained to helping you out with the OpenACS.
