KDE vs Gnome

[Bob Alexander <bob@ngi.it>]

Dear friends,
I currently run a Gnome desktop but also have some KDE appls I cannot 
seem to live with including Konqueror and k3b.

Of Gnome I like the project utopia stuff (hal, d-bus, hotplug etc.).

Question 1) What is the state of the art for KDE discovering, loading 
modules and automagically mount peripherals (such as USB keys or CDs for 
example) ?

Question 2) Is there a know CLEAN way of cleaning up one environment and 
switching to the other ? Im my case eliminate Gnome and a have a pure 
KDE environment (even though Grip is great :->) ?

TIA,
Bob