The Desktop Landscape

Whereas the opportunity in open source software to change programs for your custom needs is a great advantage in many cases, it can also lead to confusion when one version of a program is not consistent with other versions. This consistency problem doesn't pop up very often, but the best and most notorious example of it is in how distributions alter the default appearance of the two main desktop environments, KDE and GNOME. Instead of the default KDE or GNOME menus, you will see Mandrake and Fedora menus. Distros also often favor one desktop environment over another.

Mandrake defaults to using KDE. When you log in to Mandrake for the first time, without changing options for your session, you will end up in KDE by way of the KDM login manager. Fedora is equally prejudiced in its love of GNOME. The default login process in Fedora takes you through the GDM login manager and lands you in GNOME. Don't be afraid to be a rebel. You can use KDE in Fedora and GNOME in Mandrake.

For the sake of simplicity, we go over the landscapes of KDE and GNOME using the default configuration of each in the distribution that favors it. That means looking at KDE in Mandrake and looking at GNOME in Fedora. If you take that rebel route I mentioned, you will find that a few menus and icons are different, but it should not be hard for you to poke around and find what you need.