I would not say I’m new to Linux but I’m definitely still a newbie. One thing I always wondered is. How can there be GNOME and KDE (and all the others desktop environments if they have any) exclusive applications? I understand why you can’t run a KDE widget on a Gnome which has no plasma but how can text editors, multimedia programs, e mail clients and so on be exclusive for one desktop environment? The hardware needed by the application is contacted through the kernel which is the same for all GNU/Linux computers right? If there exists Gnome exclusives how there exist applications that doesn’t need a certain desktop such as most games and OO.o?
If both kde and gnome are installed they can mostly share applications, which have nothing to do with hardware. So long as the software is there you’ll be fine. I have kde4 and gnome in my fedora Box and I can run gnome apps in kde and kde apps in gnome.
Does that answer your question?!
Searching for Answers wrote:
> how can text editors, multimedia programs, e mail clients and so on
> be exclusive for one desktop environment?
i run gedit and Nautilus (Gnome apps) in KDE and kedit and Konqueror
(KDE apps) in Gnome…and, you can too…
is your question about a particular app you are having problems with?
–
goldie
The thing is that the apps are not desktop dependent. They are just built using GTK or QT. That’s the difference, so you can run gtk program on KDE but it won’t look like qt one.
You can easily run both KDE and Gnome applications at the same time, you just have to have the proper libraries for the applications installed. It’s sometimes difficult to give them a unified look, but that’s about it.
I often run without a desktop environment (DE) and use just a window manager (WM). A WM is responsible only for drawing windows on the screen. Panels, desktop widgets (including clocks), wallpaper and other applications then have to be added separately. These items are normally present in a DE by default.
My favorite WM, at the moment, is Openbox. I believe Icewm comes as a default with Opensuse. I have it as an option when I click on “Session” at the log-in window. I sometimes use it too.
I copy myself from a previous thread:
Window manager desktops are usually configured by editing text files directly rather than clicking on options, although some graphical configuration tools may be available. You lose some of the ease of point and click under a DE (and almost all the eye-candy) but once set up, WM-only systems are very responsive and they definitely are lighter on PC resources. Another benefit I find, is that mixing KDE and Gnome apps becomes much easier under a WM-only system.
…
Crunchbang Linux is an Ubuntu based distribution that uses Openbox as its WM and no DE. It has received good reviews and has an active, enthusiastic user community. Crunchbang with Openbox supports both GTK and KDE apps.
So that’s why it was so weird. They’re not DE exclusives. It wouldn’t make any sense if they were. But why name an application G edit if you want to be popular with KDE users and vice versa?
I guess for the same reason you might make Uncle Sam’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Apple Pie then export it to Europe.
Something might be designed to work in, and be integrated with, Gnome. It has a GTK backend, and its design and graphics are gnomified, because its core market is gnome - it therefore makes sense to give it a gnomey gname.
As a bonus, however, due to the unparalleled genius of Linux devs, you can run it in KDE too! 
[P.S. I personally use Akregator and Krusader on my gnome desktop - just because I like them. Lots of people whinge about them not theming properly across desktops; frankly, I think these people have too much spare time]
You can have applications that are agnostics in the GTK / KDE / MSWindows / MacOSx wars, such as Audacity. They are written using a back-end that will call whatever native program controls are available. That’s nice, too.
Searching for Answers adjusted his/her AFDB on Saturday 15 Aug 2009 16:16 to
write:
>
> So that’s why it was so weird. They’re not DE exclusives. It wouldn’t
> make any sense if they were. But why name an application G edit if you
> want to be popular with KDE users and vice versa?
>
>
You will find that not all apps that start with a G are for the Gnome
environment the G stands for GNU ( GNU`s Not Unix )
HTH
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum