Linux
low-latency / realtime kernel
linux is not exactly realtime friendly at first. 2.6.13 is actually quite good, all things considered- better than any stock kernel has been in the past, but it is still not perfect. http://tapas.affenbande.org/?page_id=3 has info on this, as well as a patch that seems as if it is the source of some of the RT changes that made it into 2.6.13.
note, this kernel patch breaks the vmware modules, as it removes SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED.
rxvt overstrike
this is annoying. i think this should be a commandline option, but it’s a copile-time option. small fonts are illegible with overstrike enabled. when compiling rxvt, for it to look correct, one must define NO_BOLDOVERSTRIKE and NO_BOLDOVERSTRIKE_MULTI. then shine2.se is legible.
unicode console
maybe looking here would help?
ext3 does not suck
create filesystems with mke2fs -j -O dir_index and things will not be slow as shit.