Linux Mint is a linux distribution, based on Ubuntu, which is aimed to be user friendly and comes with out-of-the-the-box multimedia support (Java, Flash etc). Linux Mint uses the same repositories as Ubuntu does and the latest version, called Celena, is available in two versions: Main version which is packed with copyrighted stuff and Light version which is packed with open source, GPL licensed stuff only.

Linux Mint is different from Ubuntu though. The interface is much more elegant and smart. Icons are well-designed and the Gnome main control bar is moved to the bottom side of the screen. Main menu is replaced with SLAB. Live search is supported when browsing applications, wich makes app detection much easier. On desktop, there are only three icons: Computer, Home and Installation. Double clicking the computer icon will show your drives, home will bring you to your files folder and installation will guide you to full install Linux Mint (install icon appears only when running the distribution using the Live CD).

Mint is packed as mentioned above with the lates Kernel version and with the many well known open source apps: Amarok, OpenOffice, Gimp, Thunderbird, Totem, Firefox, Pidgin and Java. Beryl/Compiz is also available for 3D desktop lovers (you need to install manually or using Envy the ATI or Nvidia drives for your graphics card). Java and Flash plugins are also preinstalled which means that you can view every web site on the internet correctly.

Linux Mint can install (one-click installation) .mint packages using the MintInstall feature. Here you can find many apps in this format, including Google Earth. The most important point is that the distribution contains drivers for almost any WiFi card and MintWifi app makes Wifi configuration a piece of cake. MintDisk allow users to view and manage NTFS partiotions without installing other software.

To install and run Linux Mint you need a PC with 1Ghz processor and 512 MB or RAM. This distribution is suitable for amateur Linux users and users that want an easy-to-handle Linux operating system.

There are thousands of companies around the world that sell hosting services. Most of them charge per month, but price should not be your only criteria when choosing a host for your pages. You should keep in mind the followings and then find the service that provides the quality you look for at the most affordable cost.

1. Technical support is one the most important issues when choosing a web host. Do they offer support by phone, email? And if so, how long will it take to get back to you?
2. How much disk space is offered to you? Remember that pages uses a very little amount of space, but multimedia files (pictures, videos, sound clips) use much larger quantities.
3. Do they offer domain registration and how much will it cost.
4. Do their servers support CGI-scripts, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Front Page extensions, SSH connection and Telnet?
5. How fast is their connection to the Internet and do they have multiple connections in case of a problem or damage?
6. If you would like to run Java/Java EE applications on your site or build a site with JSP, your host must support Java apps and run a Jakarta/Tomcat, Jboss, Glassfish or other Java server.
7. Do they offer a stastistics service to let you have a look on your site traffic and hit?
8. How much bandwitch do they offer per month? For example 2GB bandwitch for a site full of videos and images is too low.
9. Do they offer one-click installation for commonly used free web apps (like Drupal and WordPress)?
10. What site management application is used (for example Plesk or Cpanel)?

It is time to tell you something about what we use to create our products (like the cards from our Pet Shop Cards collection above). Our equipment consists of:

• Two Dell workstations powered with Intel Pentium D 3Ghz processors, 2GB RAM, running Windows XP Pro
• One Intel Core 2 Duo MacPro running Mac OS X with 8GB RAM
• One workstation equiped with a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processor and 2GB of RAM running Windows XP Pro
• One G3 Mac with 512RAM running MacOS 8.1
• Our server which features a Pentium 4 processor, 2GB RAM, running SuSe Linux 10.2
• 2TB of total storage (multiple internal and external hard drives plugged to our systems).
• For printing we use an Epson Stylus Photo 800 inkjet printer, an HP Laserjet Plus laser printer, a Roland HifiJet 52 for quality CMYK printing (we use Light Magenta and Light Cyan colors as extra colors instead of the Orange and Green which are plotter’s selection). For digital printing, we use Xante Illumina.
• For scanning we use a Linotype Hell Topaz scanner, driven by Linocolor Software, running on the G3 Mac.
• For photocopier we use an Infotec which prints on any type of paper (A4, B3, A3 etc).
• All of our stuff is connected to an 100Mbit LAN via a 3com router and to the broadband Internet (we use a 2Mbit connection) via a Speedtouch 585.
• We also own a Wacom Intuos3 A4 Tablet.
• Our workstations have Eizo ColorEdge CE210W displays.
• For monitor callibration we use Pantone Huey.
• For color control we use Pantone Color Que 2.
• The software we run mainly is Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Fireworks, Quark Xpress, Adobe Acrobat and since January Adobe Indesign.