Linux nearly put me off using computers at all especially cos at my last job that's all they had on their PCs. Only reason I even have to use it at all these days is that it's the only OS I know of that can install on a PS3 (regular, not slim). Just feels like the OS made for people with too much time on their hands.
<OT>
You can customize everything in Linux (versus Windows which tries, and fails, to say 'I know best').
That doesn't mean that you should
(but if you're high on power, like geeks can be, you might customize everything.
And you might even try to convince others that they should do the same
To be more precise, Linux is just a kernel, which you've probably never interacted with directly.
It's the distribution you use (Ubuntu, RedHat, Debian, ...) that determines what your experience will be, since the distribution makes choices about what are sensible defaults, what's important to have installed by default, the tradeoff between precise control and 'working good enough out of the box that I probably won't change it'.
Personally, I don't like all the overblown GUIs on todays desktop, so I chose Arch Linux; a basic installation of Arch is very small compared to say Ubuntu, and it makes it easier to take control of your system than others.
I spent very little time setting up ArchLinux, because it didn't make policy choices I disagreed with
(cf. Ubuntu, where I could never get the simplicity I wanted because it insisted on running all these different irrelevant interfering things)
Things like Ubuntu, you might find you actually like; I dislike them because they have the same problem as Windows: They assume I want to do fancypants stuff instead of simply getting the job done, or they actively interfere with me adjusting the system, or simply make it absurdly hard to find out *how* to adjust the system. (for this reason I've never had a Windows installation that I could consider as a 'working' installation.. despite doing plenty of different Windows installs)
I've used quite a few distros (Mandrake, Ubuntu, Slackware, Debian, Red Hat, Arch, Knoppix, PCLinuxOS...),
and I think it *is* fair to say that Linux systems and applications offer you more choice (which I appreciate that you may not always want - choice can be confusing!). Way more packages readily available, more choices of packages that fill a given role, etc.
Currently, Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu) seems to be the easiest distro, with the most stuff coming preconfigured with it. Probably what I'd recommend to someone like you if you ever find you *need* to work in Linux
(although LiveCD distributions like Knoppix are also quite capable in that sort of capacity, since there
is no need for installing and astounding hardware autodetection.).
The main things left that really do tend to require fiddling in Linux are:
Real-time sound systems (for music composition etc)
and
3D graphics</OT>
<_< ._. >_>
Quick! what can I say to be on-topic?
Also, I got a good laugh hearing about the dolling community dying out. I never paid any attention to that stuff, so I didn't know they had fallen on hard times. I always considered the doll stuff and that iso habbo hotel stuff the devil, anyways.
I've seen some good pixel dolls.. But mainly I think the Flash-based ones are more in line with the concept of dolling than pixel art is, and the vector aesthetic discourages some of the silly tendencies in doll style that can be seen in pixelled dolls (gratuitously smooth, or sparkly, or soft, or shiny. yeah, it's like they're some kind of porn -- clothes porn? glamourousness porn?)