Frustrations... when failure simply isn't an option.

I'm really frustrated today. No, it doesn't have anything to do with a woman. It's software that's giving me a serious headache. As I've been saying for a long time now, I'd like to set up a website for my students, but I still haven't found a solution that addresses all my requirements... and actually works when I try it. In general, I'd consider myself a relatively sophisticated computer user, so my repeated failures at something so important to me, both personally and professionally, are just really tough to take.

I don't have a computer science degree. Not yet. The things I am trying to do now are practice for the degree that I want to do after my Economics M.A., a "Diplôme d'études supérieures spécialisées en technologies de l'information et environnements d'apprentissage" or "Graduate diploma in information technologies and learning environments", if I translate loosely from the French. I want to be ready when I start that degree so that I'll do great in most of my courses, but my experiences with website server software are telling me that I just can't learn this stuff on my own, no matter how hard I try... because, TRUST ME, I HAVE tried!!!

I don't know what to do... I honestly don't have a clue. I need to learn how to use Apache, MySQL (or some other database software), and PHP (or an equivalent), and I need to learn some HTML as well, and maybe the basics of a few other programming languages as well... F%$#!!! I'm really frustrated... I think I'll write to a "learning environments" teacher and ask for some advice. I don't like to look incompetent - especially not to those I am supposed to impress to get into the programme I'm interested in -, but I need help with that stuff...

EDIT: Some may ask: "But isn't stuff supposed to be easier on a Mac?" In general, I'd say yes. Using iWeb, it's pretty easy to get a decent-looking website without any particular computer skills and very little work. You can create a photo gallery, audio and/or video podcasts with RSS feeds, and tons of other things really easily. However, I am trying to create a website with auto-grading quizzes, and that is more of a niche market. It requires more specialized tools and those tools, sadly, tend to require skills I don't have yet.

SECOND EDIT: After wasting a lot of time trying to find the information I needed, I thought about BitTorrent. I googled "computer ebooks torrent" and, a few hours later, I had in my possession 150 ebooks on everything computer-related. I can now advance in my quest. It will be a lot of work - but an interesting journey as well!!! :D