Chapter 3: Getting Started with the Desktop

Overview

In This Chapter

• Logging in to Linux

• Getting started with the desktop

• Choosing KDE or GNOME desktops

• Using the GNOME desktop environment

• Switching desktop environments

• Using the KDE desktop environment

• Getting your desktop to work

The desktop is the most personal feature of your computer. The way that icons, menus , panels, and backgrounds are arranged and displayed should make it both easy and pleasant to do your work. With Fedora and RHEL, you have an incredible amount of control over how your desktop behaves and how your desktop is arranged.

From the initial login screen to the desktop background and screensaver, the latest version of Fedora Core is sporting a new look for the desktop. Designs feature the new Fedora logo, along with rich thematic elements. The two desktop environments available with Fedora, KDE 3.5 and GNOME 2.16, have made some improvements in Fedora, such as new icon themes and features for enabling 3D accelerated desktop computing. With each desktop environment, you can get a full set of desktop applications, features for launching applications, and tools for configuring preferences.

Beginning in Fedora Core 2, the XFree86 X server was replaced by the X.Org X server. The X server provides the framework on which GNOME, KDE, and other desktop applications and window managers rely. If you have used XFree86 in other Linux distributions, special features of the X.org server described later in this chapter might interest you.

This chapter takes you on a tour of your desktop - going through the process of logging in, trying out some features, and customizing how your desktop looks and behaves. Sections on KDE and GNOME desktops contain reference information on how to set preferences, run applications, configure panels, and work with the file managers. The last section describes how to use the Display Settings window to configure your video card and monitor, if they were not properly detected .