Good morning,

I have been cudgeling my brains out for the last couple of days trying to find the answer to some seemingly basic questions. However, since I have been unsuccessful, I have come here to seek out the wisdom of those with more experience than I with the KDE/Plasma environment.

My first question concerns the space that is available on the desktop for the placement of icons. I prefer to have the trash can icon positioned in the lower, right-hand corner of my desktop. When I try to move it there, it returns to where it was originally. Through experimentation, I have been able to move it toward the right and down, but there is a considerable (from my perspective - an inch or so) amount of room to the right and below the icon's location. It is as though this space was being reserved for some other function. Is it possible that it is being reserved for use by widgets and the bottom panel (excuse me if I don't use the terminology correctly yet. I will improve with time and practice)? If it is being reserved, is it possible to 'un-reserve' it so it can be put to other use?

My second question concerns the selection of default applications. In a word (or more), how is this accomplished through Kubuntu?

And my last question (for the moment) concerns the removal of certain programs which were included in the Kubuntu 17.04 distro. A case in point is the KDE partition manager. Personally, I prefer to use gParted. Perhaps it is just due to with greater familiarity with how it works, but that is neither here nor there. In looking through the software center, I find gParted's installation, but I find no similar entry for KDE Partition Manager. I subsume this is because Kubuntu regards it as an integral part of the installation. If my thinking is correct in this regard, may I replace it in favor of gParted, or is there likely to be some negative repercussion that I will really not like if I choose to do so? Now some of you maybe be thinking 'why bother? Just leave it installed.' You have a point. However, it offends my sense of order to have multiple applications installed that perform the same action. It's just a part of the weirdness of being who I am that makes me such a unique and wonderful human being (*cough, cough*).

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for helping out as you are able!