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already mounted automatically):

# mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /your/mount/directory

or something along those lines. You need to be root to do it.

> Part of this familiarization
> process is the reason I downloaded Fedora in the first place, but as a
> general-purpose (Ubuntu) Linux user, don't really expect to have to read
> through the entire manual to be unable to accomplish the simplest tasks
> for a variant of an OS I'm relatively comfortable with.

Every distro has its own quirks. As a long-time Fedora KDE user, I found 
myself completely inside-out when put in front of an Ubuntu desktop. I found 
it hard to readjust to the fact that the "close window" button is in the top-
left corner instead of the top-right... ;-)
 
> In terms of rpm / yum, it's mainly plain sailing, but I'm having an
> issue which don't appear to be addressed effectively from google
> searches: I try and query packages (using -qv) to be informed that the
> package is not installed.  I try and install it to be informed it's
> already installed!

How about an example? Copy&paste your querries and the responses.

> Any advise you can offer in this regard would be
> gratefully received.

In general, don't use rpm manually. Use yum instead (that's its purpose). 
Familiarize yourself with man yum, it is very powerful when you know how to 
ask it. Use it from the terminal session (I don't like GUI's for yum, they are 
all clunky...).
 
> Finally(!) a question: At the risk of opening a kettle of worms [can of
> worms / kettle of fish] I believe I'm having a poor Fedora experience
> because of my being unable to adopt a KDE mindset (correctly?).  I
> believe I've missed something really 'obvious' with regards to the UI.

The most nonobvious obvious thing that you might have missed is the 
functionality of (un)locking widgets. Other than that, most of the 
configuration stuff is in systemsettings. There are also other (advanced) 
aspects of KDE usage like for example "activities". I never needed them, but 
they can be quite useful in some usecases.

Also, there is a big distinction in philosophy if DE usage between Gnome and 
KDE. You might need to mentally readjust a bit. :-)

> Is it possible to eliminate KDE or should I attempt a different
> download?

You can have several different DE's coexisting on a single Fedora installation. 
Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, Sugar... Not to mention window managers. Switch 
between them on the login screen (choose session). To install them,

1. yum grouplist
2. find your desktop of choice in the list
3. yum groupinstall "name of the group"

Don't omit the quotes in step 3, there might be spaces or stuff in the group 
name.

> Which would you recommend?

I use KDE. Default is Gnome3 (but under a lot of criticism since the switch 
from Gnome2). Most Gnome2-oriented people on this list will recommend XFCE or 
LXDE (and they are probably right if you are used to the old Gnome2). You can 
also try Sugar if you are 10 years old... ;-)

Mind you, since you are running Fedora in a VM, the 3D accelerated graphics is 
probably not supported (or not supported well enough...). Gnome3 will probably 
fail miserably into the fallback mode, KDE will miss all the Compiz-like eye-
candy visual effects that are otherwise present, and maybe something similar 
for XFCE/LXDE. YMMV.

> Am I creating problems for myself
> by selecting a 64-bit installation or should I go with 32-bit?

In general, no. There should be no difference between 32/64bit installs, bar 
some very peculiar situations (proprietary software, amount of RAM, skype, 
etc...). I am on 64bit for several years now, and never had any issues. 64bit 
is considered computationally superior in some generic circumstances, which is 
to be expected.

In particular, since you are running Fedora in a virtual machine, the 64bit 
guest OS depends on how well 64bit software is supported by your virtual 
machine and the host OS. I've seen cases where 64bit clients are not supported 
or do not work properly. However, I've only ever run Windows in a VM myself, 
Fedora was always on the hardware.

HTH, :-)
Marko