kde gnome x
 

Can someone please tell me the difference between gnome kde and x? The reason I ask is because I'm trying to get into freebsd and when I went through the installer I saw all 3 listed there. Basically which desktop is the best. Also can one run one without the other for example if I have kde installed does it depend on having x installed in order to run properly?

gnome and kde are both interchangeable "XP" stlye desktops. both overweight and resource intensive. X is the base windowing system, which kde and gnome sit up. X is the actual server which communicates with the hardware, e.g. mouse, screen etc... and allows windows to exist and such. you will always need X to run kde or gnome.

KDE and GNOME are desktop environments, whereas X is the server on which both rely. It is a matter of taste which one you prefer. I have only woked with KDE so far, so I can't give a recommendation.

What if Iwanted to simply use x and not gnome or kde would that also work?

You can, but then you have no window managment. This means you have to use an x-terminal to manage all applications. There are some alternative, light-weight window managers (I think the simplest is twm):
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=308261

If you're new to linux, you're probably going to want to use kde or gnome. Yeah, it's possible to just run x11, but it's alot harder, and unless you've got an older system that might not be able to handle it or you're worried about security then there's really no reason. The differences between kde and gnome are subtle. kde has alot more eye candy, and it's a bit more customizable. gnome is more streamlined and less customizable, but it tends to have fewer bugs than kde. Both are pretty well supported and easy to learn. Personally, I use kde. gnome sort of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Also, some distrobutions work better with one or the other... what distro are you using, and what are you using it for?

I'm going to be using freebsd mainly I'm interested in the server side of things. Leaning more towards apache, vpn servers, ftp, and file servers.

Most dedicated servers don't run any sort of GUI at all. Heck, a lot of servers don't even have video cards installed (they use a serial port when console access is required). You're going to need something though if you plan to use your mnchine for graphical Web surfing, photo editing, or the like. There are window managers like Fluxbox and XFCE that aren't anywhere near as bloated as KDE or Gnome.