I've been a fan of KDE since Mandrake v9. Coming from a Unix command line and Windows environment KDE just seemed to make more "sense" to me. So I have been playing with Kubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 8.10 on a slightly older computer. I had read an article that one former KDE fan moved to Gnome so I was intrigued. An HP Pavilion 541c with a GeForce2 video card. This is an AMD 1.67GHz processor with 1GB of ram, so it's not a bad computer (OK, the video card isn't that great). First problem... The computer is on a KVM so the auto discovery of the monitor did not work. Kubuntu with KDE4. This desktop environment makes no sense any more, plus they took out the option to specify the type of monitor I'm using. So I dig around on Google and find the proper configuration for xorg.conf and presto I have the resolution I like. I'll grant you the video card isn't great, but KDE 3.5 didn't have a problem showing new menus or windows. Every time I tried to open the main menu, it freaks out for a few seconds and then shows me the menu. Processor and system load.... Don't even go there. KDE4 is worse than Windows on this machine and that is quite the "kiss of death" in my mind. Wipe hard drive and start over. Ubuntu 8.10 This is Gnome? Did I step into an alternate universe where KDE and Gnome are switched? The menus actually make sense to me. I can add/remove buttons from the menu bars without even having to think about it. It still didn't auto discover my monitor, but that was to be expected. Grab the same xorg.conf file from before and all is well. No weirdness opening menu items and the processor and system load isn't half bad either. Additional tidbit... Ubuntu 8.10 also runs well on a duo 400MHz processor system with 512MB of RAM with some ancient AGP video card. I would not even try Kubuntu 8.10 on that machine after it's poor performance on the AMD. Guess the guy with the "black tower" in the article I read isn't the only one to decide that KDE4 just isn't the answer any more. Hello Gnome, goodbye KDE. -- ========== Todd Young