See this has been read 76 times, yet not one person has replied!
I knew it wasn't only me that couldn't figure this out.

If anyone can draw a picture like this it would help:

+-------------------+
+ . KDE/GNOME . + Desktop Environment
+-------------------+
+ . . . . X . . . . . . + Windowing Environment
+-------------------+
+ . . . . OS . . . . . + Operating System
+-------------------+


Desktop Environment- The Desktop Environment's job is...
Windowing Environment- The Windowing Environment's job is...

X11 is...
X is...
Xfree86 is...


I don't know if any of this is correct but it feels right, so don't quote me on it.