The GNOME Panel

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As you have seen, the Main menu is located in the panel at the bottom of the screen. This panel is a separate application, or program, called the GNOME Panel (see Figure 3-11). In operation, it is sort of a cross between the Windows taskbar and the Mac OS X dock; and like both of those panel-like applications, it can be moved, hidden, resized, and customized to an even greater extent than with either of those two.

Figure 3-11: The GNOME Panel

When you first set eyes on the GNOME Panel, you will notice that it has a default set of icons on it. Some of these are program launchers, which allow you to start up a program with a single mouse click, while others are utilities of one sort or another. Here they are, from left to right:

Main menu The access point to the majority of your applications, preferences, settings, and other configuration tools.

Mozilla Your Web browser. Essentially, it’s Netscape with a difference or two.

Ximian Evolution The very popular Linux email program, scheduler, and task manager.

OpenOffice.org Writer A Microsoft Word–compatible word processor.

OpenOffice.org Calc A Microsoft Excel–compatible spreadsheet application.

OpenOffice.org Impress A Microsoft PowerPoint–compatible presentation application.

GNOME Print Manager An application that provides access to your print queues, settings, and print jobs.

Workspace Switcher An application that allows you to switch between virtual desktops (I’ll talk about this more in Project 3A-4).

Window List A list of windows or applications you have open (very Windows-like). In Figure 3-11, there are no applications open, and thus no windows are shown in the list.

Volume Control A control that allows you to adjust the overall volume of your system (Red Hat 9 users will have to add this themselves).

Red Hat Network Alert Notification Tool A launcher for Up2date, which is a tool that allows you to update your Fedora Core or Red Hat Linux system directly via the Red Hat Network. You will learn more about Up2date in Chapter 19 and about APT, a handy alternative to Up2date, in Chapter 10.

Clock The obligatory desktop clock and calendar.

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