Rich, thanks for the reply.
1. They disappear all right, but a right click gets me a menu with no hollow squares, only: Applications (and no, nothing there that is minimized), OnDemand, System Tools, System, and Exit
2. I'll search the wiki for this, thanks
5. Thanks, it's already Openbox so I'm good. unless there are better WM's....suggestions?
7. Tried Clawsmail from terminal, got following error: error while loading shared libraries: libiconv.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
I looked in the Apps for such a file to install, didn't see anything. Not sure what the next step is, but I think the issue is that libiconv.so.2 is missing from my system. How to get it, don't know....I'm sure i can Google it and if I find it, download it and then put it??? in the /tce folder?
I've already read the book "Into the Core" (last nite), and though helpful, I think it also assumes familiarity with linux in general, and some of the topics were above my skill level at this time (or I didn't absorb it yet). I learn fast, but I'm getting information overload right now as I'm taking classes during the day (not computer related; job related) and taking online classes at night/weekends for CompTIA A+.
Thanks again.