Um, they were in RTP 10 years ago, but now they are in 2 buildings on Centennial Campus. Centennial is in fact an NCSU campus, and it's definitely not 30 miles down the road from main campus...it's right across Western.

I can see their building from my building, where I work for NCSU.

Also, yes, this does have quite an impact on our usage of Linux here at NCSU. Engineering students are required to take (or place out of) a linux-based basic computing course (E115 if I recall correctly), and Linux is supported everywhere there's an sysadmin who knows what's going on (which is NOT everywhere on campus - there are a bunch of people who aren't willing to learn Linux to support the users in their departments who want to use it). However, if you can't get support from your local sysadmin, you can often go to other resources on campus to get help.