Self-learning has worked well for me so far. Within reasonable time, you should be able to do most typical tasks (i.e. within the context of Linux, do things li

Self-learning has worked well for me so far. Within reasonable time, you should be able to do most typical tasks (i.e. within the context of Linux, do things like install new packages from a repo or from source, configure Apache/Nginx/etc., and so on.) Some things are tougher IMO, like setting up sendmail/e-mail related configuration in general, to make sure your e-mails don't bounce. But that brings me to another point that is valid in 2011 -- fortunately you can "outsource" many tasks to cloud service providers such as Amazon. Definitely know what goes on under the hood, but don't spend precious time maintaining the infrastructure yourself. If you do hit a point when for some reason the "cloud" solution is too pricy or doesn't scale to your needs, you'll likely be having other (good) problems. In other words, don't worry about that until you're successful, and then hire help if so need be.