(This is more of a linux question than a web design question, so I'm asking here)
I'm starting to build a simple website in my desktop, and I plan to get a domain and get it online eventually. Just simple XHTML+CSS, and it'll have some *nix tips, quotes, and maybe a gallery. I mainly want this to be an opportunity to (a) create a standards-compliant website from scratch, and (b) learn stuff like emacs, rsync, version control, etc (so that rules out GUI IDE's like Quanta, or untar-and-use CMS's like wordpress).

Currently I'm using RCS inside emacs, & Gimp and Krita for artwork. My question is, what tips would you people recommend to optimise my development, and learn a few interesting things along the way?
e.g. possibly using a shell script to auto-generate the sidebar links by scanning each folder..?
Is RCS decent and scalable, or should I switch to svn or something?

I have three letters for you: V I M. :P

Very well then, I have a Vi joke for you

(user) I'm having trouble with this editor
(admin) Which one are you using ?
(user) Um, I dunno.
(admin) Emacs? Which version are you running ?
(user) Umm, I'm running version vi, and having heaps of trouble. Is vii out?
(admin) Say what?
(user) Have they done anything new?
(admin) Well... Yeah, they're up to xv now, but that needs a special graphical interface.
(user) Oh, well, thanks anyway.
(admin) *shudder

Just like you, I don't use an IDE for my web development. I appreciate a good editor, though, in particular with tabs, regex search/replace, and colored syntax.
My choices so far, in no particular order (depends on the task and on my mood):
(g)vim, bluefish, nedit, geany.

Apart from that, it is always handy to have a copy of many W3C/JS/PHP reference manuals on disk, that you can browse in case you need them.

Yves.