Any way to make console look better
 

Is there any way to surf the web with pictures and have a background(wallpaper) in the linux console? I don't want to use X but I still want my "desktop" to look good. If so, how would I do that?

check out bootsplash.org as well as having bootup iamges, it will also put images acrossyour consoles once loaded. gentoo.org actaully has a very good guide on confifugring it i beleive.

Does this mean that I have to recompile the kernel? Last time I recompiled the kernel (the kernel I'm using right now), I had to wait 7 hours until it was done. My configuration was even as light as possible!

depends how your current kernel is setup, but yeah bootsplash does need a recompile in most situations.

You need to enable framebuffer mode and if your kernel is not configured for that, I'm afraid you need to recompile it.

I already have framebuffer mode I think. I can use vga=791 as a boot option and the resolution gets to 1024x768.

yes but it's the ability to load a splash image and control the things like how big the input area is and where it is on the screen, what colour fonts to use and such, that's a lot more than a framebuffer and a tux header logo.