the fact is that most configurations is just textfiles, that you can do in any way you like, they are usualy fairly informative.
below i have posted a piece from xorg.conf (the windowslike environment in many distributions), the parts with a # infront are notthing more than information for the user the lines without are the different setings.you can do any root task in knoppix by typing# ************************************************** ********************
# ServerLayout sections.
# ************************************************** ********************
# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.
Section "ServerLayout"
# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Simple Layout"
# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.
Screen "Screen 1"
# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSectioninfront of the command in a console or "run command" under the "k" menu (START menu in win), say sudo konqueror, that will open konqueror, more or less same thing as explorer combined with "this computer", in administrator mode.Code:sudo
"sudo kedit", will open something very like notepad where you can open text files and edit them.
or you can click the icon kontrol center in the "k" menu and get most things graphically.
or type sudo kcontrol in a terminal (console, xterm or whatever you want to call it) or run program in the run command on the K menu...
as for the mounting, this is more or less necesary in linux, for a desktop or laptop it may be overkill but in a server or multiuser system this allows the admin to hotswap disks or change the path to partitions/disks as he/she wishes, and as linux and unix was made for that to begin with...it is one of many things that will get clear after a while.
you can use mount to create virual drives (just a file given a filesystem and mounted) or mount ISO's of cd and DVD's, or mount harddrives over a network...
if you want to get a "crashcource" in textmode linux i can recommend
http://floppix.com/labs.html
there you get a consise description on many common processes, usually enough to stumble trough most tasks in textmode linux.
as for network neighbourhood, try the penguin icon then utilities then samba network neighbourhood, that should help you get that sorted, if not keep asking.
to get faster/better help, you put your specific problem in the subject, same thing if you try posting in correct part of forum, most will try to help you, peraps some harsh language sometimes but try to be patient with us all, many may find things hard to explain as they are so "simple" for the one explaining...
in other words, if explanation is not good enough, ask again specifying parts you have trouble with.
keep asking we will try to help.