I''ve been using windows for as long as I can remember and I''ve finally decided to free my mind. I''ve looked into different linux distros and decided to go with RedHat. Now I have another choice to make: the desktop environment. I tried to find a good compare and contrast type of resource online, but didn''t really find much. Most good info I got was outdated. I have a couple of questions. 1. If I install both KDE and Gnome, will I be able to uninstall one of them later on and still have a clean system? Usually uninstalling a big component leaves some garbage behind (I don''t know if this holds on linux systems). 2. What are window environments? As far as I understand you can run both KDE and Gnome with different ones, but I''m not sure how they fit into the puzzle. 3. Which system (KDE or Gnome) is easier to develop for? 4. I found some info online that says you can run KDE applications on Gnome and visa-versa. Yet I found other info that says they''re not compatible. Can someone explain what that means? If anyone can provide this (and any other info) it would be great.

quote: Original post by kill
1. If I install both KDE and Gnome, will I be able to uninstall one of them later on and still have a clean system? Usually uninstalling a big component leaves some garbage behind (I don''t know if this holds on linux systems).

It depends upon how you uninstall them. If you uninstall them using some sort of RPM manager (you said Red Hat), everything except config files should be removed. That said, libraries that Gnome or KDE depend on might be left behind, but you can remove those too. I''m not sure exactly how Red Hat''s tools would aid you with all of this, but I know that Synaptic (an ''apt'' frontend) gives you a "Remove with Dependencies" option.

quote: Original post by kill
2. What are window environments? As far as I understand you can run both KDE and Gnome with different ones, but I''m not sure how they fit into the puzzle.

Do you mean Window Managers? If so, they''re the peices of software that handle placement and manipulation of windows (they draw the borders of the windows, handle the z-order of the windows, et cetera). Gnome and KDE are desktop environments, they provide more than a window manager does. Sawfish is the default Window Manager for Gnome 1.x (early versions of Gnome used Enlightenment); Metacity for Gnome 2.x; and KWin for KDE. Most window managers can be used outside of a desktop environment too.

quote: Original post by kill
3. Which system (KDE or Gnome) is easier to develop for?

I''ve never developed for either of them, so I couldn''t say. Developing for KDE is different from developing with Qt and developing for Gnome is different from developing with GTK+ (which I have done) though.

quote: Original post by kill
4. I found some info online that says you can run KDE applications on Gnome and visa-versa. Yet I found other info that says they''re not compatible. Can someone explain what that means?

You can run Qt and GTK+ programs in any window manager. If these programs are specialized for KDE or Gnome there may be more difficulties though. But that''s not always the case; for example, GnomeICU (a Gnome program, not just GTK+) can be used in other window managers just fine.

Null and Void has done an excellent job responding to most of your questions. I think I can shed a little more light on one of them, though:

quote: Original post by kill
4. I found some info online that says you can run KDE applications on Gnome and visa-versa. Yet I found other info that says they''re not compatible. Can someone explain what that means?

GNOME and KDE were originally largely incompatible (KDE and GNOME applications couldn''t share data such as the current clipboard contents, and didn''t share configurations like themes). The freedesktop.org project has laid out a number of guideline specifications on how various aspects of an X Windows desktop environment should work. Both the KDE and GNOME projects have adopted these guidelines, but are not 100% in adherence yet, meaning that some features are now interoperable (like clipboard cut-n''-paste), but not all.