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I prefer SuSE. If you download the DVD, it will contain Gnome, KDE 3.5, KDE 4, xfce4 and other desktop managers. That will allow you to explore different Desktops. On my Desktop computer, I can choose between logging in to KDE 3.5, KDE 4, Gnome or XFCE4. Fedora Core will do the same thing. For other distro's they focus on a single desktop.
Besides a choice of desktops, you can easily mix kde and gnome programs. Perhaps amarok is your favorite media player. It a KDE program. You don't have to jump through hoops downloading and installing qt4 & kde libraries. Or using KDE, you may prefer using pam for a news reader.
If you visit Barnes & Nobels, they carry British based magazines that will include DVD or CD distro of the month. That is a great way of being introduced to new distros. Also visit the distrowatch website.
You have all 3 of them installed at once? How did you manage that? I have SuSE 10.0 and I had tried to install Gnome after I had chosen KDE as my default desktop environment but YaST said that installing Gnome too would cause compatibility conflicts so I did not install it.
Never heard of compatibility issues, and I know that lots of people have multiple environments installed (the login screen even gives you a choice of session type). I just chose Gnome as the default desktop during installation, then added the KDE base and desktop environment packages in on the software management section (again, during the install, but it should work at any time with Yast). I'm using OpenSUSE 11.0, BTW, so I had all three on the DVD to start with. Still, I think I remember doing the same with an older SUSE install, or maybe it was back in my FC3 days (I'm fickle), so I know it's been a possibility in the past.
Once they're all installed, I can just log out, then back in after changing the session type from the login screen. There's probably a way to do it from runlevel 3 as well, but I'm still learning.
Last edited by SilverZero; 12-09-2008 at 08:42 AM.
If you have an atheros wireless n device, you may need a distro with a >= 2.6.26 version kernel with the ath9k module. The upcoming SuSE 11.1 (and probably other distros) will have this. I tried out the kde live SuSE 11.1 disk. It's a release candidate. I only needed to enter my PSK to get on my wireless network. It used KDE 4.1 which is improved from 4.0 but I'm not sure it it will include 3.5. SuSE 11 has both KDE 3.5 and 4.0. You can install both if you wish. I'll get frustrated with 4.0 sometimes and switch back to 3.5. The version of konqueror in 4.0 crashes on me if I try to browse to a samba share. You can run the 3.5 konqueror version while using KDE 4.0.
Since they are free you should try several distros and pick the one that you like best and that works best with your hardware.
That is exactly what I did and ended up liking Puppy and Sabayon for most systems but other distros might be better for you depending on personal choice and hardware compatibility.
If you are thinking of going with Ubuntu or a variant I suggest Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu running a KDE desktop instead of Gnome. Of course if you prefer Gnome you will want regular Ubuntu not Kubuntu.
I've found wireless much easier to setup with KDE (or JWM*) than Gnome.
*JWM is "Joe's Window Manager" which is what Puppy uses...
Puppy is a very light and fast distro that works amazingly well.
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