Qualien - if the issue is just poor performance or too many crashes, you may set the Preferences for your card a bit lower. Sorry for the shameless plug, but you can get some ideas at my own blog. Sadly, most of the Second Life information is really only available once you create an account (I know this will change in the future, but right now, you only have access to 3rd party sites - fortunuately, there are many!).

Beware of addiction, though :-) As you will probably see, Second Life is not for "everybody" - some simply find it too boring for their taste. But the ones that like it, like it a lot. I think it's about as addictive as smoking, lol ;)

rreynolds - there is rather a large amount of information available on interesting places to visit when you arrive at the Welcome Area. Also, when you log in for the first time, you'll be able to choose one of the available volunteers to help you out with the first steps (you see who is available on the web site and can read their descriptions). Beyond that, well, the best thing is to ask around :)

As for toon and furry places, yes, there are quite a few furry communities, although I think that not so many toon places at the moment (although many people offer cartoonish avatars for sale, I haven't found an organised community of them - but then again, Second Life is big these days). The latest trend has been to create tiny furry animals as avatars (rabbits, squirrels) :-)

And enough "advertising" - I have been sometimes accused on other forums to be just spreading publicity & advertising for Second Life, hehe. Nothing of the sort, I'm just a very addicted user, as said. And I found it very interesting that Renderosity has included the option "Second Life" as one of the sources from visitors (it shows that there must be an overlap of both communities!). I've certainly made some efforts to point Second Life users to Renderosity since I started to use it last year or so (but alas, I have been mostly a lurker here!).