First question: How do i change desktops? I have KDE by defualt but I would like try others that i have installed, at the command prompt I just type 'startx' and KDE loads.
Second Question: I have very poor sound, I have to turn my volume all the way just to hear it.
I have a realtek 8.2x AC'97 onboard sound, I tried 'alsaconf, alsamixer and still have poor sound.
Is there a way to fix this?
Do I have to use 'alsa'? I've had a Debian distro that used somthing called 'arts' and that worked fine, can i use that instead? Do I have to install it?

For the first question just type in xwmconfig at the command line and it will bring up a menu of window managers to choose from. For the second question I have no clue, sorry.

arts is a KDE app I believe....

I had a problem once with very quiet sound. When I was looking to fix the problem I noticed that in kmix there were 4 levels marked VIA DXS. I just moved them up all the way and problem solved.