That's what you see in the web browser. There's an applet called
KGmailNotifier which sits in your system tray. Not only will you see a mail count you can also configure it to play a sound on new mail.
To install this applet you can either use the package manager or via a konsole as
root type:
Code:
urpmi kgmailnotifier
that will install it for you.
Once that is done you can start it from your menu, then right click the icon in the system tray to access the configuration options.