Hi,
Please don't consider this a troll or flame attempt. I am genuinely curious and concerned. On Windows XP I see explorer.exe which is the GUI shell occupying 13-18 MB of memory and looking good. On Linux Gnome or KDE occupy a lot more and look good (I don't myself fancy other WMs like Fluxbox, IceWM etc. because I find them dated). Am I missing something or is GUI on Windows a lot less bloated while looking eye-candyish than equivalent GUI environments on linux?

I thought that explorer on Windows was just the file manager.....

I agree that Windows looks good--they have put a lot of work into the cosmetics of the user interface. Linux is infinitely customizable and you can get almost any look you want.

Personally, I am not a fan of Linux distributors who try to make the GUI look exactly like Windows---YMMV

I think he known its the file manager, so, yes, KDE and GNOME has horrible, slow, bloated file managers, and both should be shot. The upside, is that they have extensions/addons or whatever, that allows them to do much more then just file management. KDE, for example, can be used to browse the internet.

If you want a faster file manager, look on the wiki, there is a good list there, so i wont bother recommending any.

However, since you talk about window managers, well, then your in for a shock. KDE's and GNOME's window managers are bad, why do you think no one uses them? KDE and GNOME both just use basic window managers, because they have other applications to handle other parts of the desktop. Most seprate window managers (the ones that don't ally themselfs to any particular DE) usually have some of this extra functionality built in.

If you find Fluxbox dated, ill say stay away from my personal favorite, FVWM, it looks like the year 1993, which i like. If you want something that looks modern, way modern, Enlightenment is what you want. Its a window manager, even tho they are trying to push it into a full DE (all they have so far is a basic file manager, and lots of small graphics libraries). Enlightenment's theme ability leaves every other window manager in the dust. On the downside, you'll be without a DE, in which case, you can install any programs you want, from any DE you want.

And no, its not just you. KDE and GNOME are bloated, for crying out load, Windows doesn't even come with a image manipulation program, while KDE and GNOME both have full office suits, image editors, accessibility applications, instant messengers, audio players, and video players, and guess what? They all support more then one format. And is quite all integrated, yes, in comparison Windows is bloated. On the more serious side, i do find KDE and GNOME bloated, here is what i did, found another file manager, got a better window manager, and installed any program i wanted, because i was no longer tied down. Its worked so far, faster, much more configured, etc.

Comparing KDE and GNOME to explorer is liking comparing apples and oranges. KDE and GNOME are desktop environments and explorer is just a file manager. You should really be comparing Konqueror (in file browsing mode) and Nautilus with explorer.