The windowing environment consists of a number of desktops that may be populated with different windows. Many users assign different tasks to each desktop so that they may switch, for example, to desktop four to read their mail and desktop three for their image processing program, while leaving their text editor and compiler windows unmolested on desktop one. It also magically becomes an HTTP or an FTP client when such URLs are typed into the location box. As KDE stands now, the greatest benefit to Linux users of is the large number of useful applications included in the distribution which are all tied into the KDE framework. They come nicely packaged in the K-menu as Applications, Games, Graphics, Internet, Multimedia, Settings, System, and Utilities.
Applications contain two text editors.
The Graphics applications include a DVI viewer, fax viewer, fractal generator, icon editor, a simple paint program, a postscript viewer, and a screen snapshot tool. There is, of course, a mail client and an IRC front-end. The most useful of the network applications is a PPP configuration tool. The Multimedia applications include a CD player with built-in CDDB support, a WAV player, MIDI player, a MIDI Karaoke player, and an audio mixer. The settings section contains applications to configure all aspects of the user interface, including the desktop background, the window color scheme, window behavior, the screen-saver, keyboard, mouse, system sounds, and more.