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LINUX Desktops

Using the GNOME and KDE Desktops

Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora, 4th Edition

By Bill McCarty, 2004

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LINUX Desktops

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core support two desktops:

GNOME and KDE

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Using the GNOME Desktop When you first log in to your Red Hat Enterprise

Linux or Fedora Core system, you will see the GNOME desktop The contents of your desktop may be slightly different

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Switching to GNOME from KDE If you want to launch a GNOME session,

but KDE is configured as the default desktop environment: select Gnome from the Session menu of the system

login screen. Of course, GNOME must be installed in order for this to

work.

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The GNOME Desktop Content

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The GNOME Desktop

Right click to: Creating a new folder Creating a new launcher Opening a terminal window ...

Pager provides what's called a virtual desktop

a desktop that's larger than the size of your monitor screen

Home Directory icon to access the file manager called Nautilus

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The GNOME Desktop

Drive icons If you have permission

to mount a CD-ROM or floppy drive, and media is present,

your desktop includes an icon representing the drive You can see the content of the media

Double click on the icon

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The GNOME Desktop Start Here icon

To access to GNOME facilities: Applications

The Applications icon lets you launch various applications. Preferences

to view and modify a variety of preferences, including those for the desktop, document handlers, user interface look and feel, multimedia, peripherals.

System Settings access to tools for viewing and modifying the system configuration

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The GNOME Desktop Trash icon

view files that have been deleted by using Nautilus the shell's rm command

are not stored in the trash To process trash

Simply double-click the icon GNOME launches Nautilus

to view the folder where deleted files are stored

To restore a deleted file, you can drag it to a new location

To permanently delete files right-clicking the Trash icon select Empty Trash

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The GNOME Panel

the GNOME panel appears along the bottom edge of the display

you can move the panel to a different location; click and drag the panel

to the desired location. The panel functionally

resembles the Windows taskbar; you can use it

to launch programs, switch from one program to another, and perform other tasks

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Default GNOME panel Main menu

presents a menu to choose a variety of programs. Web browser

Launches the Mozilla web browser. Email

Launches the Evolution email client OpenOffice Writer

Launches the OpenOffice word processor OpenOffice Impress

Launches the OpenOffice presentation creator OpenOffice Calc

Launches the OpenOffice spreadsheet, described Print Manager

Manages printers and documents queued for printing

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Default GNOME panel Pager Task list

The task list contains a button for each active task. Clicking a task's button

raises the task's window to the front of the screen

Volume Control Lets you adjust the level of sound appears only if your system has a sound adapter.

Alert Notification Tool Alerts you when errata or updates are available.

Clock The clock displays your system's current time.

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Using GNOME Terminal

Similar to the MS-DOS Prompt window provides a window in

to type shell commands and view their output

To launch GNOME terminal, right-click the desktop select New Terminal from the pop-up menu.

You can open multiple GNOME terminal windows if you like.

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View of GNOME Terminal

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Editing terminal settings The Edit => Current Profile

lets you configure the operation of GNOME terminal

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Using the KDE Desktop

If your system is configured to use GNOME you can launch a KDE session, select KDE from the Session menu

of the system login screen. KDE must be installed!

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View of The KDE desktop

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Using Konqueror

KDE's file manager and web browser To launch:

click the home directory icon resembles a small house superimposed on a larger file folder

click the Start (red hat) icon and then clicking Home

Konqueror displays the content of your /home folder

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clicking the Tree View icon, it is the rightmost icon on Konqueror's toolbar,

you can cause Konqueror to display information in a format resembles the familiar two-pane layout

used by the Microsoft Windows Explorer and GNOME's Nautilus.

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Konqueror: displaying folder contents

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Konqueror's detailed mode in Tree View

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End of Chapter

LINUX Desktops