In my experience, trying to use KDE is always a waste of a _lot_ more than a few hours. And even once I've got it configured the way you like, it feels like it'

In my experience, trying to use KDE is always a waste of a _lot_ more than a few hours. And even once I've got it configured the way you like, it feels like it's barely holding together with duct-tape at the seams. There's always a few things missing, always something, but I'm afraid to touch it for fear it'll all rip apart. KDE feels like a mish-mash of disparate parts that sort of go together. Much of the "work" I do in setting up KDE is giving it a clean and consistent interface. So I, too, always go back to GNOME after trying KDE for a few weeks.