Even if you are in a rural area, is there not a
college (or "community college") within easy driving distance?
Even a drive of, say, fifty miles each way, is not unreasonable. A
visit to an installfest can be invaluable when one is setting out with
Linux, because of the expertise which such events attract.
Years ago, even after much reading, I had been unsuccessful in trying
to envision and implement a proper workflow for desktop publishing
with Emacs and LaTeX in the X environment. Thankfully, I mentioned my
confusion to the guru who was installing my system, and in an
off-the-cuff demonstration which lasted less than ten minutes, he
demonstrated to me everything which I needed, in the process
introducing me to a key package -- xdvi -- with which I was
unfamiliar.
RH