Linuxville Embassy changes ahead

I've been told that my compass has spun in the art direction of late to the demise of Linux exploration. My main problem is time and head size. I just can't wear all those hats with the liberty I had in the past. I got a real 9 to 5'ver now and keeping an eye on my parents and my wife's also, oh, and did I mention the new grand-daughter? What's a guy to do?

I'm contemplating a real web site for the artist side of things. That is going to take some time and will also require some looking into some new Linux applications for web design and HTML. HTML is the "hyper-text mark-up language", the reason they are called "web" sites. Of course with web design is all the trappings, fonts, clip-art, it should be an experience. Then after you spend so much time looking around, the time has come to settle down to get some real work done. There are plenty of web sites that "look around in Linux". Besides by now I know you all can "google it" or "yahoo it". Your Linuxville guide might offer a brief rundown here and there are always occasional flashbacks.

I do have some realizations you could ponder. Linux has many marketable qualities, one being that it will run on older hardware. I say this is great if you are going to use that PC for regular stuff like email, net surfing, tinkering and putt-zing. I would say don't even bother to install, just run off the live-CD, use web based email and save to a jump drive. This is a totally portable appliance like setup you can use anywhere. If you want to do heavier work, you should consider the best hardware (Linux compatible of course) you can get, all the memory you can put in the PC and keep an ethernet cable handy (just in case). You can get the most out of Linux if your machine is able to utilize it. This is true for XP and Vista also. I am doing graphics and I did notice a performance hit on my Linux machine using Inkscape. A graphics card upgrade and system memory upgrade will fix that. The more complex the drawing, the larger the drawing, you need more memory for crunching numbers and formatting on the fly. We won't even get into what avid gamers need, they are like hot-rodders at the races. Still, I am not looking for extreme technology, just to raise the bar a little.

For once the hardware at work has more umph than my home system. It's twice as fast and has a wider and larger screen. Seeing more image on the desktop is very cool, too bad it's an XP machine. Linux is still exciting but I am moving into an appreciation phase on the other side of installation. To all you people still dipping the big toe in Linuxville waters, don't be fooled by the penguins, the water is a balmy 75 degrees, always.