Some answers based on Debian and KDE proper

dpkg -L packagename shows were the individual files of a packages were stashed.

To add links to the desktop: KDE uses a small text file to create the icons. So any symlink to the desktop would have to be to such a file. Normally, they hide in /home/a_user/Desktop. I think the safest way to create new icons is to just let KDE do it (desktop context menu/Create new/Link to application...).

Normally, PATH includes a reference to /usr/bin, so anything in there is executable from the command line. You mean they nuked that in Xandros?

For the KDE DPI thing: you can size the icons and fonts through the KDE control center (normally found in /usr/bin in case it disappeared from the desktop)
- Appearance & themes/Icons/Advanced has a dropdown for the icon size (up to 64x64 on the desktop)
- Appearance & Themes/Fonts lets you pick the font size for the desktop

You've given me many things to check and read up on.

Under Xandros, from the desktop, Create New -> Shortcut ... seems simple enough. I can create a symlink to /usr/bin/gnuplot and it shows up on the desktop. Unfortunately, it won't run. I get a busy pointer for a few seconds then nothing happens. Oh well, I'll bet it is something reasonably simple. I'll read up on it when I get a chance.

gnuplot apparently did create a menu entry off the "Launch" button on installation: Apps -> Math -> gnuplot . It runs fine from there.

I can start gnuplot from a default console/terminal, so the path apparently is there (I haven't been able to find out how to read the present setting yet).

Thanks for the tips. I greatly appreciate it.

Cheers,
Scott.

Welcome to IWETHEY!