I know it sounds kind of stupid, but the only thing keeping me away from kde is that the captions on the icons on the desktop and in konqueror flicker when i move the mouse over them. can i stop this?

something to do with the refresh rate

Control Center -> Icons -> Advanced Tab -> change the effect for the Active icon to "No Effect" from "Gamma". You can manage the effects for icons in other locations from this panel as well.

yes franklin is right
i thought it was the refresh rate

thanks both of you for your answers.

mohit dhawan: I tried changing the refresh rate, but it didn't make any difference. I also tried various refresh rates on several other computers (about 10) and every single one had the same flickering still.

Franklin: your solution worked, and the lack of any action when over an icon certainly doesn't annoy me anywhere near as much as that flickering.

I don't think this is the intended bahaviour, because it doesn't flicker every single time. it also doesn't seem to flicker as much if i move the cursor over the icon slowly. I have tried different distros (MEPIS 3.3 test 1, FC2, FC3, Mandrake 10, Suse 9.2 and knoppix 3.7) and every single one has the same problem (sorry I don't know what versions of kde these use). there is no flickering with gnome and nautilus.

does anyone else get this problem or is it just me and every single computer and version of kde I use????

EDIT: it also doesn't seem to flicker as much with icons that don't require as much change when animating. i.e. on MEPIS, which I have been using to test on different computers, there is an icon which doesn't seem to change at all no matter what effect is applied (gamma etc.). this icon doesnt seem to flicker as much.