Linux in its varieties

[craig139]

Ok. For the more technically minded folk amongst you, a few questions:
1) KDE vs Gnome and why? And please, no bickering.
2) What distribution and why? There certainly are a LOT out there. How do I know which one?

Comments

[kenshardik]

1) My old-school tendencies say GNOME because it's what I've always used. I like what's available for it, but I admit I haven't been paying attention to KDE so I don't really know what it's got going for it.

2) My new-school tendencies say Ubuntu. It's easy to set up and is based on Debian so it has geek cred.

[craig139]

So, do programs designed to work under Gnome not work under KDE? Would a program need to be recompiled?

I am currently using Freespire/Linspire, and I am looking at what all else is out there.