Okay, I just installed Linux today. The first thing I notice when KDE loads up is that every single element of the screen is antialiased. Personally I find antialiased text to be very difficult to read, and after only a few minutes of trying to read the documentation, my eyes began to hurt.

is there a way to disable this nonsense? I just want regular, crisp, clear text.

Also, how does one switch from KDE to GNOME or other desktops. And how do I configure my dialup connection???

The operating system seems extremely non-friendly to newbies, but mainly because it assumes you know how to do things already. I click on a dialup icon, and where Windows might give me a dialog box to set up my connection, KDE tells me to fix such and such somewhere, but doesn't direct me to it.

Please help.

helix5

Regarding anti-aliased text, you need to find in the menu something along the lines of
Configuration > KDE > LookNFeel > Fonts.
From here you can turn off anti-aliasing.

Regarding the other questions, I recommend that you supply a few more details, especially the distribution that you are using, as the setup tools can vary greatly.

In terms of switching between desktops if when you log in, you are at a gui login then you should be able to select from a few different environments in a menu at that screen. Just look through the options present before fully logging in. Of course it does depend upon what you selected when you installed your system. By the way, what flavor are you using? As for a dial up...errr...dunno. You`ll have to google/search this site. That should be very straightforward though.