Open Source Journal

So I have decided to jump into the deep end of Drupal Development, and I have become a co-maintainer of Taxonomy Menu (http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_menu) I need to put myself in a position, that I am forced to learn how exactly the back end of drupal works.

So I have been asked what some of my most used tools are as I begin my "adventure" as a web developer. First of all I use Ubuntu linux on a pc. I'd love a mac, but I don't want to lose a limb to buy one.

Software:
- Firefox
Firefox is a great browser, especially with addons (I will go over later)
- Komodo Edit
This is a free editor with built-in ftp access, which is essential
- Filezilla
Free ftp client

Firefox Plugins:
- Firebug is one of the greatest web development plugins ever
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

As I have been working more and more with Drupal - there have been multiple things that I have seen that I wish I had the knowledge to fix.

- I wish all themes would allow you to customize all colors (not by editing the style.css) via a simple color picker. Yes, I know editing the css file is not to difficult. But, if you are completely new to the system it is hard to know where to start. Which file holds this setting? Is it a css file? Which One?