The GNOME Desktop

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The GNOME desktop provides you with all the capabilities of GUI-based operating systems (see Figure 6-1). You can drag files, applications, and directories to the desktop, and then back to GNOME-compliant applications. If the desktop stops functioning, you can restart it by starting the GNOME file manager (Nautilus). The desktop is actually a back-end process in the GNOME file manager. But you needn't have the file manager open to use the desktop.

Note 

As an alternative to the desktop, you can drag any program, file, or directory to the panel.

Drag and Drop

Although the GNOME desktop supports drag-and-drop operations, these work only for applications that are GNOME-compliant. You can drag any items from a GNOME-compliant application to your desktop, and vice versa. Any icon for an item that you drag from a file manager window to the desktop also appears on the desktop. However, the default drag- and-drop operation is a move operation. If you select a file in your file manager window and drag it to the desktop, you are actually moving the file from its current directory to the GNOME desktop directory, which is located in your home directory and holds all items on the desktop (notice this is a dot file). For GNOME, the desktop directory is .gnome- desktop. In the case of dragging directory folders to the desktop, the entire directory and its subdirectories will be copied to the GNOME desktop directory.

You can also copy a file to your desktop by pressing the CTRL key and then clicking and dragging it from a file manager window to your desktop. You will see the small arrow in the upper-right corner of the copied icon change to a + symbol, indicating that you are creating a copy instead of a link.

GNOME's drag-and-drop operation works on virtual desktops provided by the GNOME Workspace Switcher. The GNOME Workspace Switcher on the panel creates icons for each virtual desktop in the panel, along with task buttons for any applications open on them.

Application Links

In most cases, you only want to create on the desktop another way to access a file without moving it from its original directory. You can do this by creating a link. To create a link, first click and drag the file out of the window, and after moving the file but before lifting up the mouse button, press the ALT key. This will display a pop-up menu with selections for cut, copy, and link. Select the link option to create a link. A copy of the icon then appears with a small arrow in the right corner indicating it is a link. You can click this link to start the program, open the file, or open the directory, depending on what kind of file you linked to.

You can use that icon to access the item directly. This is often used for starting common programs. For example, you can click and drag the Mozilla icon to the desktop, and then press ALT, to create a Link icon for Mozilla. Double-clicking the icon starts Mozilla. You can do the same with files. In this case, their respective program is started. If the item is a directory, the file manager starts up opened to that directory. If you want to have an application placed on your desktop that is not GNOME-compliant, you can manually place a link in your home directory's GNOME desktop directory, .gnome-desktop.

Desktop Drive Icons

The desktop also displays icons for any drives you have mounted, such as a CD-ROM or floppy drives, provided they are user-mountable. Nautilus automatically mounts CD-ROMs when you insert them into your CD-ROM drive, displaying the CD-ROM icon and opening a Nautilus window displaying the CD-ROM's contents. To eject a CD-ROM, right-click its icon and select Eject from the pop-up menu.

You can manually mount a CD-ROM or floppy disk by right-clicking anywhere on the desktop to display the desktop menu and then selecting the CD-ROM or Floppy entry in the Disks menu. An icon for that device will appear with the name of the CD-ROM or floppy disk. You can then access the disk in the CD-ROM drive either by double-clicking it or by right-clicking and selecting the Open entry. A file manager window opens to display the contents of the CD-ROM disk. To unmount and eject a CD-ROM, right-click the CD-ROM icon and select the Eject entry. The same procedure works for floppy disks, using the Floppy Disk icon. Be sure you don't remove a mounted floppy disk until you have first unmounted it, selecting the Eject entry in the pop-up menu.

Desktop Menu

You can also right-click anywhere on the empty desktop to display the GNOME desktop menu. This will list entries for common tasks, like opening a new terminal window for entering shell commands, or creating a new folder. Keep in mind that the New Folder entry creates a new directory on your desktop, specifically in your GNOME desktop directory (.gnome-desktop), not your home directory. The entries for this menu are listed in Table 6-1.

Table 6-1: The GNOME Desktop Menu

Menu Item	Description
New Window	Starts a new Nautilus file manager window on your desktop, showing your home directory.
New Launcher	Creates a new desktop icon for an application.
New Terminal	Launches a new GNOME terminal window that navigates to the desktop directory.
New Folder	Creates a new directory on your desktop.
Scripts	Selects scripts to run on selected files.
Clean Up by Name	Arranges your desktop icons.
Cut, Copy, Paste	Cuts, copies, or pastes files, letting you move or copy files between folders.
Disks	Displays a submenu that lists floppy and CD-ROM devices that you can select to mount. Mounted disks will appear as CD-ROM or floppy icons on your desktop, which you can use to access them or unmount later.
Change Desktop Background	Opens a Background Preferences dialog to let you select a new background for your desktop.

Window Manager

GNOME works with any window manager. However, desktop functionality, such as drag- and-drop capabilities and the GNOME pager (discussed later), work only with window managers that are GNOME-compliant. The current release of GNOME uses the Metacity window manager. It is completely GNOME-compliant and is designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop without any duplication of functionality. However, other window managers such as Enlightenment, IceWM, and Window Maker can also be used. Check a window manager's documentation to see if it is GNOME-compliant.

Metacity employs much the same window operations as used on other window managers. You can resize a window by clicking any of its sides or corners and dragging. You can move the window with a click-and-drag operation on its title bar. You can also right-click and drag any border to move the window, as well as ALT-click anywhere on the window. The upper-right corner shows the Maximize, Minimize, and Close buttons. Minimize creates a button for the window in the panel that you can click to restore it. You can right-click the title bar of a window to display a window menu with entries for window operations. These include workspace entries to move the window to another workspace (virtual desktop) or to all workspaces, which displays the window no matter to what workspace you move.

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