Hi,

 as a long time user of Scientific Linux I would like to explore using
desktops other than Gnome.  Am currently running Gnome on SL 6.9.
I found that Xfce is already installed on my system; i also did a
yum groupinstall of KDE desktop and all went well.

In the preferences menu we can chose which desktop to use, so I checked
off KDE, rebooted my system and I still get the usual Gnome desktop.
Why does this option make no difference ??

that sent me to check various postings and i find several possibilities.
the first that I found on line is to create a file
/etc/sysconfig/desktop enter the line DESKTOP="KDE", or DESKTOP="XFCE"
and things should work. Have also found suggestions that I should create
a file .xinitrc in my home directory and things might also work.   Am
still not clear what to put in the .xinitrc file.

 May I ask is there a preferred way to do this, if so what do people
suggest.  I would also like to easily change desktops.  Ultimately,
am hoping to migrate to SL 7.x.  However the thought of using Gnome3
is more than i can bear, so am trying to explore my options.

regards,
Andrew

 Andrew Komornicki
 Department of Chemistry
 Stanford University