Can I have both KDE & Gnome desktops avail in open Suse 10.1?
 

I've done a lot of searching but as a Linux newb I can't quite answer this question. In open Suse 10.1 can I have both Gnome (which I selected during install using the "I have no clue" guessing approach) and KDE desktops available. I've found a bunch of facts (the ability to switch to other sessions using Ctrl-Alt-F keys, the ability to have multiple desktops in SLED which doesn't apply to me, the fact that YaST shows some KDE components installed but not others, the fact that both Gnome & KDE run on top of X Windows) but I can't put all these facts together to make an answer. The closest I got was a site saying I should be able to Ctrl-Alt-F2 and enter kde --:1 but I get bash: kde: command not found. I guess that could be a path problem, or maybe more KDE components need to be installed.

Please feel free to do the fishing lesson instead of giving me a fish approach. I'm not trying to be a sponge.

Thanks in advance for your help.

You should be able to install KDE using Yast.

Then at the login screen, you should be able to select either Gnome or KDE or whatever other desktops you have installed. There should be a button on the login screen called "sessions".

I hope this helps
--Ian

You can have as all the window Managers present on your system. The linux kernel and Window managers operate independetly unlike windows kernel. So since they are seperate you have the option to run different WM's. I currently have gnome,kde, and fluxbox. I have gnome and kde installed just to use some of their apps under fluxbox.

OK, thanks. Yep, I went through the YaST install procedure for KDE (took a while) and now I have the Sessions option on the login screen and I am having fun with my new desktop. It was definitely worth it. Sorry for my confusion.