I wanted to get people's feedback on experiences with the KDE destop environment. I played with it for a while and was impressed.

I liked the non MS apps and non MS approach to mail. via K-mail

anyone else ?

I'm interested to know what you mean by "MS approach". I've used MS Outlook and now kmail and I just use them in largely similar ways.

I enjoy the way to combine contacts management, news and mail in Outlook (express) though. There is a kde project called "kmail cool" which heads towards that direction but because it is not compatible with kmail I don't dare to try it.

for the desktop KDE is the best ... IMO of course. i love kde. it is by far the most flexible and easily nice looking desktop environment. granted, theres lots of GTK programs i use on my desktop, gaim gimp and others, they work well with KDE. the nexest KDE is very seemless and runs very well for me. i use suse 8.2 by the way.

when I referred to ms approach.. it was in the sense that we (representing millions of users) have been so ingrained and bombarded by microsoft desktop apps

Well in relation to email clients, there is only so many ways you can layout such a thing before it starts to get impractical to use. Microsoft Outlook (express) are good mail clients. Microsoft has spent a lot of time in researching how users are most productive in the email client layout.

To say that a particular open source app is copying a MS app is not totally true. The concept of ease of use and most productive environment is the goal for any program and you have to stick with what works.

For the record, I use SuSE 8.2 Pro w/ Ximian Evolution

KDE is fine if you have a fast computer with plenty of memory. My desktop box is a 1997 or so vintage (P2 350MHz), so KDE runs acceptably, though it takes way too long to load.

Generally speaking, I use just a window manager rather than an "integrated desktop".

KDE is a pig of a desktop. To many features all over to accomodate everyone. Some may say that is good and I am glad that they enjoy it but there are other Window managers that have complete functionality to get things done. It just depends on the type of nix user you are. People that want a desktop like Windows can choose KDE. People that want a desktop that runs and is functional without all the bloatedness can run many other window managers that I think can do the job. For one Gnome. Also fluxbox, xfce, Suns new Mad Hatter and a few others. Also who needs all the bloated features of KDE if your using nix to its max by using the shell. Just my opinion.