Every time I learn something new, or learn something that I had misunderstood previously, I usually take it as a sign that I don’t know everything. Knowing that I don’t know everything reinforces the idea that I know what I know and don’t know what I don’t know, at least for the time being. Know what I mean?
Case in point are two very brief explanations of 32-bit color, as opposed to 16-bit or 24-bit. One is in Wikipedia, and the other is on a site called “How Stuff Works.” Be careful with that last one; you can get lost in there really fast. Sometimes learning is addictive.
Anyway, it seems that 32-bit color is simply a means for showing a layer of translucency through those last eight bits. So 24-bit and 32-bit are mostly the same, just with an added provision for translucent objects. And so there it is. Now you know your xorg.conf file a little better.
I won’t embarrass myself by saying what I thought 32-bit was. 
Suffice to say I didn’t know everything, and still don’t, of course.
Thanks to John.Michael.Kane for pointing those out, as a side note in the Fluxbuntu frenzy thread.
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