If nobody finds a better solution, you should be able to get something usable by making multiple user accounts. Set up a different autostart list for each and login to the one you need. You'll want to save data to that public/shared docs folder so you can get access to it regardless of which login you're using,…

No clue about skills and prep, it's not something I've ever even considered doing, but...

If you use Linux or OS X, Ardour might be worth looking into. Seems pretty powerful, though I don't do much with audio to give good input on it

VOTE: KOrganizer, a part of Kontact (forKDE).

It could have just been a bug with the version you had before that was causing the slow starts/crashes, then. Glad to know it's working out now; there's nothing wrong with Photoshop but it's always nice to see people choosing to not pirate something they can't justify buying legitimately.

oh, i didn't know about all that stuff for gimp :O, thank you...

Wow thank you very much, this is incredibley detailed and informative, I'm going to try these tools right now.

If you're interested in drawing/painting, a combination of MyPaint and Gimp (with a couple modifications) is really nice. I know you didn't want to see gimp suggestions, but hear me out:

Another option to look into is Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), who releases music under Creative Commons attribution licences. If you can't or don't want to attribute he also provides a non-attribution licence for a fee. He also does custom scores, but that's probably not affordable :)

I also support the git suggestion, but you don't have to use github for it to be useful. If it's just one and one other person you could both work on separate copies of the repository and merge without needing a third party site to push to. One of the selling points of git is it's a distributed system: everyone…

Where was your neighbor before your truck caught on fire?

The small version in the article is harder to tell (like it says), but you should still be able to see differences even there. At the lower size it's just a loss of clarity in spots: notably the ear, nose, some of the fur, and the top edge of the globe. It's still acceptable at that size.

The biggest improvement to using a command-line only system will be reduced RAM usage. CPU usage will be lower too, but not as drastically so as the RAM. You can set up some temperature monitoring stuff and keep an eye on it, even remotely if you want, though.

Okay, before I forget, this is what I was talking about before. One of the annoying things about the official minecraft server right now is there's no easy way to automate it or otherwise control it externally. You could run another unofficial/unsupported server (a lot of people do) but then you're at the mercy of a…

You're going about this the wrong way IMO. If you're cold in a server room the solution is to overclock the servers until it's comfortably warm. :)

No problem, I've been helping a couple friends - one with a VPS for general use and one with a spare computer specifically used for minecraft - so you asked something that I've had a bit of recent experience with. I've also used Dreamhost in the past, which is why I know their web hosting policy :)

I'd challenge you to find a single Java program that runs on a desktop that is actually lite, efficient, a joy to use on 5 yr old hardware.

The difference is that some services are "web hosts" and they don't expect (or allow) you to run persistent processes. In fact, it's against terms of service to run persistent processes on webhosts usually. Dreamhost has this rule for its web hosting.

If you're having to reinstall a lot due to experimentation, here's another tip:

My experience with relatives using Linux is pretty hit-or-miss.