16 KDE KDE, the K Desktop Environment, is an open source software project that aims at providing a consistent, user-friendly, contemporary desktop for Unix and Linux systems. KDE is not simply a window manager like fvwm but a whole desktop system that integrates the window manager functions into its own graphical con- figuration. The KDE interface makes full use of drag-and-drop functionality, so you can grab an icon for a text file in the file manager and drag it to a text editor window to open it. Full network integration of KDE applications allows you to transparently access files from other computers or FTP sites and manipulate them as if they were local. KDE also implements a standard help system based on HTML. Applications that display a Help button can open a specific help file in the help viewer. One goal of KDE is to provide the user with system information and configuration through easy-to-use graphical interfaces of the desktop. The KDE Control Center is a central utility for desktop and application configuration, as well as a source of information for important system components. The Information module of the Control Center can retrieve and display status information for your processor, memory, PCI bus, and network devices. A wide variety of applications have been developed to take advantage of KDE's fea- tures and provide the user with a wealth of productive applications. The base pack- age comes with programs such as a mail client, a calendar and organizer, a CD player, image viewers, chat programs, and many more. Most Linux distributions ship with KDE and allow you to set it up as the default session environment when you install the operating system. If you are installing KDE separately, download and install the KDE packages (you can find them at ftp://ftp .kde.org,among other places). To set KDE as your desktop environment, look for the X initialization files in your home directory. Depending on your distribution, look for either .xinitrc, .xsession, or .Xclients in your home directory. If none of these files exist, create a new .xi nitrc file. Edit the file to remove any window manager references that may exist and 751