There are really three key differences between KDE and other Linux DEs: * Better file management. Dolphin (modern UI), Konqueror (Windows Explorer style ui com

There are really three key differences between KDE and other Linux DEs: * Better file management. Dolphin (modern UI), Konqueror (Windows Explorer style ui complete with web browser) and Komander (two pane midnight commander style gui) are all very good. Even the file open/save dialog is more useful than other DEs. * KIO allows you to access pretty much everything local or remote from the file manager or file dialog. Just use a url like ssh://user:pass@someplace.biz. Supported protocols include ssh, ftp, webdav, smb, imap and a bunch more I use less often. * Usable control panel that actually doesn't hide settings from you. You can change pretty much everything. * Scriptable alerts and extensible context menus. If you don't like it you can change it.