Chapter 1. GNOME in 60 Seconds (or a little longer)

Table of Contents
An Overview
The Desktop
Folders
The Panel
Finding Help

GNOME is the default desktop environment in Red Hat Linux 6.1. Flexible and user-friendly, GNOME provides both the power of your new Red Hat Linux system and a comfortable GUI.

In this section, we'll briefly cover some essentials of your new environment to help you feel right at home. For greater detail about GNOME, please turn to Chapter 8 later in this book; the guide is also accessible from your desktop in the GNOME Help Browser or from the Web at http://www.gnome.org .

An Overview

When you initially begin your X Window session , among the first items you'll see are:

The Desktop -- The main workspace of your environment. Windows are placed on the Desktop; launchers are also found here for applications, documents or other data. Double-clicking will open a folder or start an application.
Folders -- Containing links to documentation such as support, help and reference guides, either on your installed system (locally) or on the Web. Folders (as well as launchers to other applications) can be added and deleted from the Desktop. See Figure 1-2 for an example of folders and launchers on the desktop.
The Panel -- The long bar across the bottom of the Desktop serves as a quick launcher for applets ; the stylized GNOME footprint (called the Main Menu Button ) leads to the menu of applications. Single-clicking on the Main Menu Button will display the included applications on your system.

Using the Mouse

A three-button mouse offers the greatest flexibility in GNOME. If you have a two-button mouse, however, and you selected three-button emulation , simply hold down both left and right mouse buttons at the same time.

Pressing the middle button of your mouse on the desktop will reveal a GNOME applications menu, help menus and configuration menus for Enlightenment, the default GNOME window manager .

Using the left mouse button selects an item to open or drag to another location; by holding down the left mouse button while you drag the cursor over items, you can select multiple items on the desktop.

Using the right mouse button reveals a menu of actions which you can take. Right-clicking on the desktop shows you options such as adding desktop items, rescanning the desktop and more. Right-clicking on a folder or application reveals a menu related to actions you can take with your selection, such as deletion, properties and more.

Drag and Drop

You can drag and drop items in GNOME, meaning that you can "carry" data or applications from one area of the desktop to another, "drop" items in folders or on applications, move or copy information and applications.