Fedora Core 3 does make GNOME look somewhat better than it really is. Along those lines, I'd go with GNOME if I'm running Red Hat, otherwise KDE
Either or. I like both of them. It depends on the computer/mood that I am in. Both are good, gnome is a little bit slimmer than KDE though.
I used to do level 3 too, then I beat the end of level boss with the BFG and got to level 4, now i use a gui
Openbox and some custom little panel app is my choice. Probably the fastest solution out there. Out of the big DE's I'd choose Gnome because it looks more professional and the GTK+ interface looks way better IMHO. XFCE is nice too but a bit rough at first.
xfce and fluxbox are the best imo kde and gnome are both too bloated imo yes xfce and fluxbox may be "bare" at first but are easily configured and extra programs can be installed to get the function you need whilst avoiding all the other stuff you don't need
Ubuntu user here (as of ten days ago!), so answered Gnome as that's what Ubuntu is based on. I like it; won't go back to XP!