Sometimes GNOME gets really, really borked, so badly that you essentially need to start over. In situations like that, it's time for drastic action. Here's what you do:

If the gconfd process is running, kill it. Find the PID for gconfd with ps aux, and then kill the process using, uh, kill.

Now delete the following directories:

~/.gnome
~/.gnome2
~/.gnome2_private
~/.gconf
~/.gconfd

Restart, & you now have a virgin GNOME. This means, of course, that all the settings your had in place for GNOME apps are gone too. If that really bums you out, then back up those GNOME directories instead of nuking them, and then carefully put the right config files back into place as needed. Tedious, yes, but less of a PITA than redoing everything.

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Very cool this one is. Gmail a good emailer, yes. Use as GNOME's default, you can. "Using Gmail as GNOME's default mailer" you should read now. Simple script, easy configuration. Clicking on email link now opens Gmail, yes. Later you thank me.

(Check out all of our posts on Gmail & GNOME.)

I don't use GNOME & don't really dig it that much. But I know a lot of folks do, so this one is for them (& heck, even KDE-lovers should know what GNOME is doing, 'cause it's a source of [some] good ideas for KDE, & we do use some GNOME apps, after all). "A Look at GNOME 2.14" is just that: a list of the new features coming up in GNOME, illustrated with a buttload of screenshots. It's long & detailed, & worth your time.

(Check out all of our posts on GNOME.)