I'm a Gnome man, there I said it. Like Brett I found KDE 3.5.x too much like Windows and stayed away until I found Pardus. Instantly I got used to KDE and found it not too bad. Like everyone else on the planet, I played with KDE 4 when it first was released and laughed and laughed at what they...
Linux is not Windows, it never will be, so stop trying to use Linux like Windows. Before you put Ubuntu out on it's ass, trying doing a bit of research first. A quick lspci in a comand line would have told you much of what you need.
Linux requires a bit of learning, but no more so than...