Ok then, I have definitely seen 1 or 2 dead pixels, in fact my older Dell Latitude has a couple that have been there as long as I can remember, but no new ones ever popped up.
When I write code (Perl, C, PHP, etc) I like to have a graphical environment running but I have anywhere between 2 and 6 terminals open. I like a black (or dark translucent) Kterm or Eterm with all the scrollbars and menus turned off and a very thin or no border. I usually write my code using "vim" and keep the source open in one of the shell windows. I love vim's syntax hilighting and superior functionality (there's a learning curve involved with vim but well worth it). I compile and run/test the code in a second terminal. And use the others for various other things like maybe a MySQL or PostgreSQL prompt if I am doing database programming etc...
Now if you are writing QT/KDE apps you might want to use Kdevelop rather than the command line method but you can certainly write your graphical apps using terminals as well. But I don't know if you are just starting or have been at it a while. Just some ideas if you are just starting...
Oh, and another neat terminal trick in Linux if you weren't aware of it is scrolling through your buffer using your keyboard rather than the scrollbar (as I mentioned I turn off the scrollbars). If you press SHIFT+PGUP and SHIFT+PGDN it does the same thing as clicking on your scrollbar. Works good for that text that scrolls past the top of your terminal so you can go back and look at it without having to use the rodent. It even works in the virtual terminals (outside of X). I had used Linux for years before someone pointed that out to me. I think it's one of the handiest things...
[ August 09, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]