The K Virtual is essentially a terminal emulator used to connect to other machines. It also makes a great xterm.

The kvt app is easy to configure with regards to fonts, window color, scrollbars and similar options. Another nice feature is the ability to spawn a new kvt from the 'new' menu -- even when another command is already running!

The Editor is a great text-editing application for users who are more comfortable with Windows programs like notepad.

It sports many more features than notepad, but like the rest of the KDE, it generally retains the same keybindings (e.g. Ctrl-C for 'copy'). Often these shortcuts are the result of guesswork and determination, as they are not always documented.

More challenging text-editing jobs will probably still require more 'industrial-strength' commands like vi and emacs.

kview is a lightweight app used for viewing image files. It supports the GIF, JPEG and PNG formats.

Although it does not allow for image editing, it does have a pretty neat 'slideshow' feature for viewing several images in succession.

These two applications are merely front-ends for other Linux applications. They serve to add more of the KDE 'look-and-feel' to the desktop environment, but otherwise do not seem to add much functionality.

It is also worth noting that the K help browser can read man pages and TeXinfo documentation natively. To access this feature, start the K help browser and type something like:

man:rm

info:(tar)

in the address bar. Notice the difference in syntax between the two -- man pages are not enclosed in parens, while the TeXinfo documents are.

These apps are pretty self-exlanatory and do pretty much the same thing as their windows counterparts.

The K CDplayer (kscd) supports the cddb database, which is a free networked database on the internet that provides album, song and artist information to compatible CD players. More information about the CDDB is available at their website at http://www.cddb.com/.

The appfinder is avery handy script for populating the K menu with most KDE-compliant applications and many apps which are not KDE-compliant.

This is very useful, given the amount of time it can take to configure the Start Menu and Apple Menu on on Windows and Macintosh systems.

The menu can also be edited and customized further with the standard KDE Menu Editor program.

The find files application is perhaps one of the best things about the KDE. It allows users to find files based on several factors such as file name (standard UNIX regular expressions and Wildcards are supported), file size, date, and even contents. This is certainly useful to anyone unfamiliar with the UNIX find command and all of its arcane options. New and experienced users alike will benefit from this intuitive application.

The Kfloppy program lets users make a filesystem on (to DOS/Win/Mac users: format) a floppy drive. Several options are supported including density, labeling and filesystem type. Currently, users can only create MSDOS and ext2fs (linux) formatted floppies.

At first glance, these seem to be two very similar programs. There are, however, several differences which make each of them quite useful.

Knotes lets a user create 'sticky notes' and set them on the desktop for taking quick notes. The effect is much better in the k window manager because the notes do not show extra titlebars, but they should work on any window manager. Kjot lets you create lengthier notes and prganize them into books, which can be saved and dumped into ASCII format. This would be helpful for use in meetings and during phone calls when you might want a longer-life record than you might get from the knotes app (although knotes can also be saved).