KPE vs Gnome vs Other
 

Hey guys, I'm a newbie to linux. You can probably tell since I'm posting in the newbie forum.

I was wondering what the pros and cons are pertaining to the different GUIs

Maybe someone can provide some links for good reading on this matter :)

Thanks ahead of time! Linux forever!

I don't like KDE or GNOME...I find both very bloated and slow to use, however for the newbie I suppose they can make life easier. I use the Openbox window manager with pypanel (a panel at the bottom of the screen) to display my active windows and a clock and to cycle through desktops. I'm also rather fond of fluxbox.

I am definitely a noob, that's for sure. What do you reccommend in my case?

It's hard to just recommend something - different people like different features. When I was just starting I used GNOME because I never 'felt' right with KDE. Things just didn't seem to do what I wanted them to. Now I prefer to have less on my desktop - I don't like icons, I just want a simple window manager and a taskbar. As long as I can bring up an xterm to run my apps then I'm happy :)

If you have a system with both KDE and GNOME installed then I would give both a try and see which you prefer. I would say either of them is the best way to get started and as you need to do more stuff you'll find yourself using the command line and will probably want to move away from them yourself.

I say just try both and see which you like, and if you like neither then there are plenty of simple window managers (fluxbox, openbox, sawfish) that provide basic functionality onto which you can add other apps, such as the file manager ROX, to do other things.

The great thing about unix is the variety!

I like KDE, but some find it a bit complex
 

This is one issue on which everyone has their own opinions. Here are the broad facts.

There are two desktop enviroments for linux, KDE and Gnome. Both come with most everything you can use a GUI for.

- KDE is most similar to Microsoft Windows, and is very configurable (it can be tweaked endlessly).

- Gnome is designed (I think) for simplicity, and there are usially fewer ways of doing things, as on a Mac. (Disclaimer: I haven't used Gnome in ages, nor a mac ever.)

Both of these desktop enviroments has its fan's, but happily there has lately been an effort to make them work together better.

There is also a type of GUI called a window manager which will give you the basics, like windows, menus, buttons and so fourth, but does not come with many applications installled by default. Therefore, unless your machine is quite old and not able to handle the requirements of a desktop enviroment, I'd recomment that a beginner start with KDE or Gnome. But remember that no matter what choice you make and how much experience you have there will be a learning curve.

Good luck.