ok, to start out, I am running debian on one computer and knoppix hd install on the other.

1. When in root on the knoppix system, I type ls -l and all the directories and executables are in color. However on the freshly installed Debian install, ls -l is not in color, I can get it to go color, by ls --color -l, but I would prefer not to have to type the --color everytime I am in the shell, is this stored as an environment variable or in a config file? and where would it be located. I tried --color=always, but that didn't seem to work. How would I go about changing this?

2. The language icon appears in the system tray everytime I start KDE, being that I only know one language, how would I remove this? What config file tells KDE to start a program upon start of the GUI? For future note, I would like to be able to control who/what starts when KDE start.

Thanks in advance. I am a Linux Novice, but am willing to learn.