Don't worry too much about him, you'll get a very one sided comment from him on every post in this sub which will include some variation on the phrase "99% of zones are 100% dead" - check their post history, it's just funny by this point.
In answer to your question though: AO normally has sales for Christmas, Halloween and the Anniversary. Check the http://www.anarchy-online.com/news feed for previous dates. Expect mid December for the next sale/offers.
Save yourself the headache of remembering or trying to make your bags uniform. I understand what you're trying to do, but it really isn't worth it.
Instead, you should use something like AOIA to keep track of your inventory. It is much better than trying to remember which bag contains what you're looking for.
No bonus per se for returning players but they have membership rewards for the days you paid subscription for. These are also for the days in the past that you did pay and not only for new payments. http://www.anarchy-online.com/membership-rewards
The original game + notum wars expansion is free to play. Why not just make an account and jump right in. That's the best way to experience the game.
I can tell you right now though, it's going to be a tough start and most people quit before level 30. The learning curve is steep and the economy is pretty much fucked.
You're best bet is to try to find a good org that will help you along the way and give the opportunity to meet people and have fun.
If you decide to play the game, our sidebar has a lot of information to help you. Check out some of the websites and old posts if you get stuck.
I'm not sure if this will work but I'll give it a shot anyway.
I used to run Linux on my gaming rig and I got AO working via POL.
https://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html
They offer a generic package that you can compile yourself and requires python to be installed. I don't know if this works on Mac OS X. However, using POL I was able to get AO installed and running with no problems. I had to use an older version of wine because it had issues with the latest versions. I believe I was using 1.5.25.
Here is some additional information from the WineHQ website: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=514
PlayOnLinux is simply a front end for Wine and has built in scripts to automate proper game settings to work in Wine and it creates these 'Wine Bottles' for you. Wine bottles are just self contained installations of Wine. This gives you the freedom to use different version of Wine without having to change the default Wine install. It in essence allows you to have custom global variables and isolate dependencies.
If this method doesn't work, we can either try to continue searching for fixes using your current Wine install or you may have to consider using some sort of dual boot software such as Parallels or Boot Camp. This will allow you to run Windows programs naitively instead of virtualized.
even though it is DX9 there are still a lot of factors that play in.
Look at the difference between the games from when DX9 first launched compared to the late DX9 titles.
Take something like Star Wars: Jedi Academy 2 compared to Battlefield 2, there are 2 years between the 2 games but the requirements are vastly different.
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/battlefield-2/10270/?p=r
http://gamesystemrequirements.com/game/star-wars-jedi-knight-jedi-academy
I looked at the email they sent which links here: http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=2781&table=CONTENT
It shows image from inside the game as it appears now. The noob area, ICC and something else, I haven't a clue.
On the testlive page it states that you need to have a subscription.
"Anyone with an Anarchy Online subscription can play on this test server. There are, however, some important things to be aware of when using it"
I'm not sure if a froob account is considered a subscription (I assume it would) but I suggest you scope out the official forums (as /u/DmanBR suggested) and see if you can dig up any additional information.