Thanks for the warm welcome. I would've responded a little more quickly, but I had some problems getting the forum to recognize my password. I'm not sure what's going on, but among other things, Mozilla had (literally) stored "******" as my password.
I hope "vast experience" was intended as flattery and not a real expectation, because I'm not
that experienced.
I agree this is a necessary forum. It's natural that graphics on Linux, as with most other disciplines, will involve using lots of different applications in concert, rather than relying on single, monolithic applications. So, it's nice to have a place to discuss them together, and especially, using them in concert, which is what I usually need to do.