I remember getting some good effects using particles, but it's been so long ago I don't remember how I did it. If you don't know how to use particles grab a tute off blender.org or blender.wiki.  It wasn't very difficult as I remember.

This is sort of scary post.  The blender learning curve is steep.  Go to the blender site and download tutorials -- you are starting at zero; I think this is the only realistic way. Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

One thing that used to be a problem with blender in linux is the lack of accelerated drivers.
I haven't kept up with this, but when I used Suse (9.?) there was one available. But it wasn't installed when the system was first set up.  I had to download it from the ATI (the other major graphics chip mfg is Nvidia) site.  This may have changed; I've read that binaries are now pretty generally available. But if you load blender and it runs slooooow.  That's probably your problem.

I think the author of the wiki entry has an unhealthy breast fixation.  Of course, so do a lot of the rest of us.  See http://www.renderotica.com {This is not a link; you've got to type it in yourself.}.

I don't know about automatic connection, but you can connect two vertices by scaling them with the <> button held down.  After you get them to 000 in all three dimensions, as indicated by the readout on the lower left part of the screen, select remove duplicates. Upon reflection, this is probably not what you're asking -- but it's as close as I can get.

I think the first answer, from jestmart, above, is closer to what you're asking.

For tutorials on the above you can also check http://mediawiki.blender.org. They not only have a number of tutorials, but they have a manual -- a work in progress, for ever ... it is never done.

i just downloaded your tut -- looks good, but I haven't read it yet.  Also, thanx for the uv tut -- this is all stuff that I loose track of while lost in model making.  What happens is I make a model, it looks like crap partly because I've not taken the time to learn lighting, etc.

     I've been using MakeHuman for a while -- it is quite useable, but not too polished.  Version 9 is the first really usable version.  You can find MakeHuman at Sourceforge.org. Just type in MakeHuman in the search box. I down loaded it from there with dial-up.

     The models are low polly, and I believe there is python script to rig the figures once they are imported into Blender.  You can pose them in MakeHuman, and then do minimal rigging in Blender, or you can import them into Blender, rig the figures, and then subsurface the result before rendering.

     The interface is intuitive, and gives a good idea of where the project is headed if its developers don't burn out. If you went to their website you probably saw the animation with the programmer beating himself to death on a keyboard.

     One final thing in an already too long response.  The models are very good despite being low poly.  The muscles deform realistically when posed in MakeHuman.  The MakeHuman people are artists who program in contrast to the Poser people who are programers who do art. This last is may opinion  -- no flames pleas.

You don't mention it, and it might not be of much use to you, but you can use lattices (lattaci ?) to manipulate a fairly dense mesh with only a few control points.  After things are mostly complete use grab (proportional or whatever mode works best for you in your specific situation) to manipulate individual verticies.

Actually, I think the script is a good idea and a useful one. I also think the oodmb has a point.
I'm a mere hobbyist myself, so what  I've got to say should be sort of discounted.  Mainly though, I've come to use Blender and MakeHuman because I started to get the feeling I was doing something like playing with barbie dolls when using Poser.  Playing with barbies is all right, just sort of a finite experience -- you buy the props, or use freebies, pose your characters and use Gimp or Photoshop to clean up the screw-ups.  With a suitable script one's horizons can be widened.

I'm a little late, but so it goes.  Of the several library options that come up, it seems that you want the object library.  After you get into it, left click on the objects you want, the hit enter, or click on load library. At wikiblender someone (I forgot who) is writing up a tutorial on the filesystem interface that should be helpful.  I know, as an amateur myself, some of the arcana is truly confusing. Note: while I'm at it.  There are a number of useful tutorials being written.