At this point, I'm groovin' on just having mySQL working, and on the experience of having basic tasks like creating DBs and tables and fields go painlessly, when I work through phpMyAdmin. I'm simultaneously having to learn the arcanities of the PHP 'MySQLi' extension, again just to do basic DB stuff, which is keeping me from learning as much as I'd like about the depths of MySQL. I come across references to cool things in the docs, but so far haven't had time to read further.
Access, phhttt! I didn't bother upgrading past Access 2000, because I never intended to rely on it for anything other than prototyping or small transaction volume applications. It has tables, it does SQL, it's adequate. SQL Server was always a turnoff, not least for its insane pricing, and now that Oracle owns MySQL, I'd expect it to kick SQL Server's ass around the block.
Installing MySQL gives me a bingo my LAMP card. I'm now experienced in Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Nice to be on the side of the future.