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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting Started

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The first time I ever drove a car was on a one-mile stretch of straight country road at 5 A.M. After a ten-second driving lesson from my cousin, I found myself driving in the middle of the road with the headlights off. Another car approached and we started to panic. My cousin yelled at me to get in my own lane and turn on the headlights, and I responded by almost veering off the road as I frantically searched the dashboard for the control to turn on the lights. Driving bumper cars at the carnival had not prepared me for this.

Many people wanting to try Linux for the first time find themselves similarly unprepared. They are often worried that they'll lose data, crash the machine, spend endless hours learning how to perform common tasks, or even make their Windows machine unbootable. But these potential Linux users needn't be afraid. Using Linux is far less accident-prone than learning to drive.

This book, along with its accompanying CD, is an excellent way to explore the exciting world of Linux and open source software. The Move CD is a customized version of the popular Mandrake Linux distribution. It runs "on the fly" directly from the CD. There's nothing to install, and all of your computer's data remains perfectly safe. It's like driving a car that you can crash as hard as you want without ever damaging the car or yourself.

Move includes hundreds of applications for just about every type of daily computer task. The CD contains a complete Microsoft Office-compatible office suite called OpenOffice.org. Other programs allow you to surf the Web, create and modify graphics, listen to music, and watch videos. Whatever it is you want to do, you'll probably find an an open source program for it on this CD.

This is not a demonstration CD, nor is it an interactive video, such as those frequently used in software training. Move is a real operating version of Linux that runs from CD instead of from a hard drive. This is truly the easiest way to test-drive Linux.

Linux is a free and open source operating system that you can run on your current PC in place of Microsoft Windows. It was first created by college student Linus Torvalds in 1991. Because Linus made all of his programming code (usually referred to as

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What Is Linux?

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Linux is a free and open source operating system that you can run on your current PC in place of Microsoft Windows. It was first created by college student Linus Torvalds in 1991. Because Linus made all of his programming code (usually referred to as source code) available to others, Linux has since been further developed by thousands of programmers from around the world. As many people point out, Linux itself is not a complete operating system. In fact, it is only the core of an operating system, known as a kernel . A kernel is combined with many programs, libraries, and utilities to make up an operating system. The GNU project, an organization of programmers and others devoted to creating source code that can be distributed freely, has supplied many of the programs and libraries that combine with the Linux kernel to make a complete operating system. Taking the GNU project into account, many people refer to the operating system based on the Linux kernel as GNU/Linux (pronounced guh-noo'/Lynn'-nucks). Throughout this book, the term Linux refers to the entire open source operating system, unless otherwise stated.

A comparison to a car may help you understand this arrangement better. The kernel can be thought of as the car's engine, transmission, and wheels, while the belts, hoses, frame, pumps, and fuel injectors are supplied by the GNU project. At this point you have a usable car, but it isn't very pretty. KDE (described in a later section) and other graphical environments are the sheetmetal that defines the actual look of the car, as well as the interior and the details that make it comfortable and fun to drive.

KDE stands for Kool Desktop Environment. While using it, you can't help but notice that the developers like to name their KDE programs so they begin with a K: Kontact, KMail, Konqueror, KWrite, and so on.

Linux is everywhere. More web sites run Linux than Windows, and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the U.S. loves Linux so much that it created its own highly secure version called SELinux (and then shared it with everyone). The U.S. Department of Defense uses clusters of Linux servers to run battlefield simulations, and everyone's favorite personal video recorder, TiVo, runs Linux inside (but not on Intel processors). Amazon runs on Linux, and so does Google. And, as this book will teach you, Linux is a free alternative to Microsoft Windows on many desktop computers.

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Starting Up the Move CD

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So let's get started with using Linux by booting the enclosed CD. Before booting into Move, be sure to plug in and turn on any peripheral devices that are attached to your PC, such as zip drives, printers, scanners, etc., so that Move will have the greatest chance of configuring things automatically. If you have a USB memory key, insert it before the system boots up so that Move can use it to store your configuration.

The preface of this book provides all the dirty details about system requirements and the usefulness of having a USB memory key. The short of it is: if your computer can run Windows, it can run Linux. And if you have a USB memory key, you can save data and settings from your Move session.

To use the CD, simply insert it into your CD-ROM drive and boot your computer. If your computer is set to boot from the CD drive (and most of them are), you will shortly see a screen that looks like Figure 1-1. If your computer is not set to boot from CD, you'll probably need to make a change in your computer's BIOS. The Appendix provides instructions for doing this. When you see the screen shown in Figure 1-1, simply press Enter to launch Move.

Figure 1-1: Move startup splash screen

The menu options accessible by pressing F1 are for advanced features of the CD. You don't need to use this menu unless referred to it by the troubleshooting steps in the appendix.

You'll see a few automated screens go by. You'll then be prompted to choose a preferred language, agree to the licensing terms, detect a USB key, choose a login name and password, and so on (Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2: Initial configuration screens

At no point during this startup is anything being done to your hard drive. Using this CD does not hurt your current computer setup. Also, the length of time it takes to boot Move is not an indicator of the performance of Linux itself. When the entire operating system runs from a CD there are some tradeoffs, one of which is speed.

In the first screen you need to choose a language. Although this CD has support for only a few languages, Linux itself supports more than 70 languages, which is one of the reasons why Linux is so popular outside the United States. Microsoft must have financial reasons to include support for a particular language; Linux needs only the time and interest of someone who can speak the language—one of the many benefits of open source.

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The KDE Desktop

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KDE is a powerful and full-featured graphical desktop environment for Linux computers. Unlike Microsoft Windows or the Macintosh, Linux is not limited to just one graphical user interface (GUI). Instead, Linux provides a platform , called the X window system, on which many different GUIs can run. KDE is one of the most popular Linux GUIs and is very easy for Windows users to learn. Chapter 12 introduces another GUI, but since it isn't included on the Move CD it's not described in great detail.

Much of this book focuses on using the KDE environment. Don't let this confuse you—you are still using Linux when you use KDE. You are just interacting with Linux through a particular set of graphical programs that belong to the KDE environment. This is no different from using Windows, where your interaction with the core of the operating system, the kernel, is controlled by the graphical environment known as the Explorer shell. Didn't know that, did you?

In Figure 1-4 you can see the default KDE desktop provided by Move, which consists of:

• The desktop, on which frequently used files, folders, and wallpaper may be placed.
• A panel, called the kicker , across the bottom of the screen, which is used to launch applications and switch between desktops. This is similar to the Windows start button and taskbar, but much more versatile.
• A welcome screen with some helpful tips to get you started with Move. Click Close to remove this window from your desktop.

Figure 1-4: The default KDE desktop

You may be surprised to see that the KDE desktop looks pretty much like the Windows desktop you have been using for years. As you will find out, KDE behaves a lot like Windows too. In fact, KDE is designed so that users of other operating systems will feel right at home.

The desktop shown in Figure 1-4 contains shortcuts to important directories and devices that Move detected during startup. There is an icon leading to your Home directory (similar to My Documents in Windows), an icon for the Move CD-ROM, and a Trash can for storing items before deletion. Feel free to rearrange the icons to your liking by dragging them to different areas of the desktop. For a tidier arrangement, right-click an empty area of the desktop to expose a context menu, then select Icons

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Using a Typical KDE Application

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Most Linux applications look and behave very much like the applications you use every day in Windows. Even how you launch programs is similar. For example, to launch the text editor KWrite, you would click K Menu → All Applications → More applications → Editors → KWrite. This is similar to launching Notepad in Windows: Start Menu → Programs → Accessories → Notepad. Launch KWrite now so you can perform the tasks in this section. Most KDE applications behave similarly to KWrite, so it is a good "starter" program.

KDE application windows contain a title bar, drop-down menus, a toolbar with buttons for commonly used commands, and a work area. In the case of KWrite, the work area is a place to do some typing. In other applications, the work area might be your email or a web page.

Go ahead and explore the menus and toolbar buttons offered by KWrite. Pause the cursor over any of the buttons to display tooltips that describe the functions of the various buttons (Figure 1-7). Also worth noting is the Help menu that appears in most KDE applications. Choose Help → KWrite Handbook from the menu to see the help files for KWrite.

Figure 1-7: The tooltip for the Print icon on the KWrite toolbar

When you're done exploring the menus and toolbar, go ahead and type a few lines of text in the work area. For some strange reason, I've always had the compulsion to type the opening lines of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Most KDE programs can be customized by using various options under the Settings menu. In KWrite, go to Settings → Configure Editor to load its configuration window. You'll notice that for a text editor, KWrite has an awful lot of options to configure. This is because KWrite is a very capable text editor, much more powerful than Notepad, and includes many features to meet the needs of advanced users who want to write programs, web pages, and complex documentation.

Just for practice, change the font for KWrite. From the main configuration window, click the Font tab (Figure 1-8); select a new font and font size and click OK to accept the changes. As you can see, the changes are accepted immediately and affect the current text, even though you didn't have it highlighted.

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Controlling Windows

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Now that you know how to launch a program, you can experiment with KDE's features for controlling program windows. Launch the KWrite program again and practice the following steps. Most of this is old hat for Windows users, but there are a few features that are unique to KDE.

KDE windows have some important features. The right side of the title bar contains three buttons, just like those in Windows. From left to right these are:

Minimize

This hides the window, leaving only an icon in the taskbar.

Maximize

This expands the window to the largest possible size. If the window is already maximized, it will be restored to its previous size.

Close

This closes the window. The keyboard shortcut for this is Alt-F4.

KDE windows also contain a window menu to provide quick access to the most common operations. Right-click the title bar (or press Alt-F3) to see the window operations menu. Under the Advanced option, you can specify whether this window should always be on top of other windows or always below them. I find this option handy for multimedia programs such as an MP3 player, or instant messenger windows, where I always want the program to float on top of my other windows so I can control my music or keep track of an instant message conversation.

Another interesting feature is the "windowshade." Double-click the title bar to roll up a window, then double-click it again to roll it back down. This is a handy way to hide a game of Frozen-Bubble when your boss walks by.

You probably resize windows all the time. Programs often open windows that are too small, or you have to drag and shrink windows to get them out of the way so you can get to a program or icon beneath them. KDE provides numerous ways to resize windows:

• Resize a window horizontally by dragging the left or right edge to make the window wider or narrower.
• Resize a window vertically by dragging the top or bottom edge to make the window taller or shorter.
• Resize a window in both directions at the same time by dragging any corner of a window.
• Or, while pressing the Alt key, hold down the right mouse button inside the window, and drag the cursor to resize the window. If you click near a corner, you will be able to resize in both directions.

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Virtual Desktops

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Two things have long pained me when watching other people use their computers. One is that the user often has dozens of icons on his desktop. So many, in fact, that he sometimes spends a minute just looking for the proper icon to click. The other is the poor window management options that Windows provides. A user may have several programs open at a time, and when he wants to launch a new program, usually from an icon on his desktop, he often has to drag windows out of the way, minimize them, or both. Not only is this a time-consuming process just to find an icon to launch a program, but it also means the user has to locate and move the previous program windows back into place when it comes time to use them again.

Fortunately, KDE has some nifty features that can help you organize your icons and open windows. Chapter 8 contains information on customizations you can make to the kicker to create quick-launch icons for programs and assign keyboard shortcuts to launch your favorite applications. But you can start using a feature right now that can help you manage open windows. It's called a virtual desktop, and once you start using it, you won't be able to get by without it.

In KDE, you can have several different desktops—each with its own windows and settings. Move's default configuration provides only two desktops, though you can configure KDE to use up to sixteen. The concept of virtual desktops is a little difficult to understand for people who haven't used them before, so it may be best to explain them with an analogy everyone should be familiar with: changing television channels.

Two of my favorite shows, Smallville and Lost, air at the same time on Wednesday nights. By using my remote I can switch channels between the two shows. My TV picture adjusts to display what is being broadcast on the other channel, and I can switch back to the first channel at any time. Back and forth, back and forth. The same TV, but different channels, each one showing a different show. It's so simple that it almost seems absurd to explain it.

Well, virtual desktops work the same way. Each desktop is displayed on the same monitor, but shows you a different "channel." What this means is you can have a program like Frozen-Bubble running on your first virtual desktop, and another program like KWrite running on the second one. And with a simple keyboard command or click of a mouse, you can switch between these different desktops and see the other program.

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Setting Your Desktop Background

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From pictures of their family and pets to pictures of Russell Crowe and fast cars, people love to personalize their computer desktops with background images. KDE, of course, provides the ability to do this. In fact, the program that displays wallpaper allows for even more types of images and more image effects than you can get in Windows.

To get started, right-click an empty area of the desktop and choose Configure Desktop. Figure 1-11 shows the configuration screen for changing the background. There are a lot of options.

Figure 1-11: Changing the desktop wallpaper with Configure Desktop

First off, you can choose whether this wallpaper change affects all virtual desktops or just a specific one. Then you can choose either a color background, a picture you select from a drop-down list or with the file selector, or a slide show that lets you choose which pictures to display and for how long. The Options section further affects the color or picture choices. The most useful option is the Position drop-down list, which lets you choose how a picture should be scaled to fit the screen. Small images look best when they are tiled, and large images look better scaled. Tiling is when an image is repeated until it fills the screen; scaling is when an image is stretched equally in all directions until it fills the screen. A small preview screen shows you how your selection will look.

You can use practically any image file as wallpaper, including any Windows wallpapers you may already have on your hard drive. Chapter 3 tells you how to do this. In the meantime, you can download a lot of great Linux-related wallpapers from http://www.kde-look.org. When you're happy with the desktop wallpaper in the preview screen, press OK to accept your change and close the window.

Setting different wallpapers for different virtual desktops makes it easier to remember which desktop you are on and lets you enjoy multiple wallpapers. Use the "Setting for desktop" drop-down list to choose which desktop wallpaper to change. After applying the change, press Ctrl-Tab to switch to the desktop and check the results.

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Linux Equivalents to Your Windows Programs

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There are so many open source applications available that it can be difficult to know which one you need. Table 1-1 lists a few Linux programs that can be used to perform common tasks. (The program listed first is the one that is available on the Move CD or that is fully described in this book.)

Table 1-1: Linux programs for common tasks

Task	Linux application name	How to launch
Web browsing	KonquerorFirefoxOpera	K Menu → Surf the Internet → Browse the Web
Email	KontactEvolutionThunderbird	K Menu → Surf the Internet → Read and send e-mail
File management	Konqueror	K Menu → All Applications → Home
Office productivity (Word processors, spreadsheets, and presentations)	OpenOffice.org (Writer, Calc, and Impress)	K Menu → Use office tools → Create a (text document, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing)
Calendar	KontactEvolution	K Menu → Organize → Organize your time
Instant messaging	KopeteGaim	K Menu → Surf the Internet → Chat
Personal finances	GnuCash

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Logging Out of KDE

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When you're done for the day, log out of Linux by clicking K Menu → Logout or by right-clicking an empty area of the desktop and selecting Logout. Figure 1-12 shows you the logout screen.

Figure 1-12: The options for logging out of KDE

The restart and turn off options are self-explanatory; selecting End Session logs you out of KDE and then logs you back in. This odd behavior occurs because Move has only the single user you created when you started it up. On a regular Linux system with more than one user account, this option presents you with a login box after KDE closes so you can select which user to log in as.

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Chapter 2: Surf the Web

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Depending on how much time you spend on the Internet, your web browser may be one of the most important programs on your computer. Just a few years ago, Linux users had only one graphical web browser available: the venerable Netscape Communicator. But today, Linux users are treated to a wide selection of world-class web browsers, including two browsers based upon Netscape—Mozilla and the wildly popular Firefox—and a commercial offering called Opera.

The default web browser on the Move CD is Konqueror , a full-featured browser that is part of the KDE desktop environment. In fact, the technology behind Konqueror is compelling enough that Apple chose to base its own Mac OS X web browser, called Safari, on Konqueror's code. And because the Konqueror project is open source, Apple returned their improvements back to the community—their changes were added to Konqueror to make it even better.

The Konqueror file manager you'll learn about in Chapter 3 and the web browser covered in this chapter are one and the same. Konqueror is not just a program; it also provides a framework for running whatever programs its creators choose to embed into it. That includes programs such as FTP clients, terminal windows, PDF and image viewers, and even a tool for CD ripping and MP3 encoding.

These days, it's worth trying an open source web browser for security reasons alone. Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser has proven to be riddled with security holes that can be severe enough to make your system unusable or even destroy your important files. Microsoft attempts to fix these security problems as they pop up, but the patches are a) not always successful, b) sometimes not provided until months after a security hole is found, and c) often available only to Windows XP users. Even when patches are available that do work, you may not feel comfortable using them. This is the reason millions of Windows machines have become so compromised that they can now be remotely controlled by an unsavory group of Internet citizens known as crackers . Crackers hijack many ordinary home Windows computers by exploiting security holes in Internet Explorer. Then, adding insult to injury, the crackers use these computers to send a huge portion of the world's spam email!

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Using Konqueror as a Web Browser

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The Konqueror web browser supports all the usual features required by a browser, including HTML 4.0, JavaScript, the ability to run Java applets, Cascading Style Sheets, SSL, and lots more. But that's really just a lot of technical jargon; what it basically means is that Konqueror should have no problem correctly displaying the web sites you visit most. You can launch the web browser directly from the Konqueror icon in the kicker panel (it looks like a small blue world with some spikes coming out of it). Or you can start it up by selecting K Menu→ Surf the Internet→ Browse the Web. The default startup page for the version of Konqueror on Move is a welcome page that offers helpful links for Mandrake users (Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1: The main Konqueror page in Move

Using Konqueror is no different from using any other browser, such as Internet Explorer. To navigate to a new page, double-click the text in the Location field to highlight it (the keyboard shortcut for this action is Alt-O). Then enter the new address (including the suffix, such as .com or .org) and press Enter to load the page. (The Location field serves the same purpose, and is in the same place below the menus, as the Address field in Internet Explorer.)

A useful way to launch the web browser directly from the desktop is by pressing Alt-F2 to display the Run dialog. Then type a URL (such as google.com) and click Run. This launches Konqueror and automatically loads the requested web page.

Besides using your mouse to move around on a page, you can also use several different keyboard commands, as shown in Table 2-1. Some of these commands will be familiar to IE users who navigate with the keyboard.

Table 2-1: Common web browsing shortcuts

Keyboard shortcut	Used to...
Ctrl-Shift-N	Create a new tab
Ctrl-N

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Customizing Konqueror

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Because Konqueror can wear so many hats (acting as a file manager, web browser, and FTP client, among other things), it needs to remember all your preferences for these very different functions. Konqueror keeps track of your preferences through profiles . These profiles remember what size window you prefer, your default startup web page (homepage), and your favorite toolbar configuration. There are five default profiles: File Management, Web Browsing, File Preview, Midnight Commander, and Trash, and you can create more profiles to suit your purposes. The most frequent changes made to the default Web Browsing profile are to the default startup page and to the size of the browser window.

As you use Konqueror, you may become annoyed by the fact that it doesn't remember your preferred window size each time you restart it. I don't know the reason it was programmed this way; after all, KDE remembers the window sizes of other programs. Thankfully, there is an easy solution to this annoyance. To configure the web browser so that it automatically appears in your preferred window size, all you need to do is update the Web Browsing profile.

First, set the Konqueror window to the size you want. Then, inside Konqueror, select Settings→ Save View Profile "Web Browsing" to load the profile manager shown in Figure 2-5.

Figure 2-5: The Web Browsing profile configuration dialog

Near the bottom of the window, uncheck the box next to "Save URLs in profile" and check the box next to "Save window size in profile." Then click Save. The next time you launch the Konqueror web browser, it will open to your preferred size. Problem solved!

When the web browser starts up in the Move CD, it displays a default page that was set by Mandrakesoft. But you can change the startup page to anything you want—say, the homepage of your favorite news site or sports team.

To specify a different homepage, first load the desired page into Konqueror. Then click Settings→ Save View Profile "Web Browsing" to load the profile preferences. Make sure the "Save URLs in profile" option is checked, then click Save. The next time you start up the web browser, it will display your newly selected homepage.

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Disabling Pop-Up Ads

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Those stupid ads that seem to pop up everywhere are definitely one of the most annoying things about surfing the Web. A great feature of Konqueror, and most other Linux web browsers, is the ability to prevent these pop-up windows from rudely appearing and interrupting your web surfing. Microsoft recently incorporated this functionality into IE with the release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. This is great if you use Windows XP, but not very useful for the 80 million people who don't.

To disable pop-ups in Konqueror, open the Settings→ Configure Konqueror window and click the Java & JavaScript icon. This may seem like an odd place for these settings, but because most pop-ups are controlled by JavaScript code, it actually does make sense. Figure 2-11 shows the settings on the JavaScript tab that you can use to control pop-ups. To block most pop-ups, check off either Deny or Smart in the "Open new windows" dialog. Deny means that JavaScript is never allowed to open a new window; Smart means that a new window opens only if you purposefully clicked a JavaScript-enabled link. Smart is usually the better option here, because it doesn't break the functionality of web mail and bank web sites that sometimes open separate windows to have you fill out a form. So just click on Deny or Smart, press OK, and you won't be bothered with annoying pop-ups anymore.

Figure 2-11: Disabling pop-up ads in the JavaScript panel

If even the Smart option prevents a web site from working properly, you need to create an exception for that site and allow it to create pop-up windows. To do this, click on the New button in the Domain-Specific section of the JavaScript tab. In the window that appears, type in the domain name (like oreilly.com or nyt.com) in the "Host or domain name" field, set the JavaScript policy drop-down list to Accept, and check off the Allow box for the "Open new windows" option. Click OK to apply your changes. From now on, the web site you specified should always allow pop-up windows.

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Exploring Tabbed Web Browsing

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Tabbed browsing is a great feature for power web surfers. In normal web browsing, clicking on a link changes the current page to display the contents of the link you clicked on, or sometimes a clicked link opens up a new browser window. The eventual result is that after 20 minutes of surfing you end up with several open browser windows cluttering up your desktop.

The solution to this browsing mess is tabs. Tabbed browsing allows you to have several pages open at the same time within one window. Tabbed browsing, which originated in the web browser Opera, has become so popular that all modern web browsers except Internet Explorer (who would have guessed?) include the feature. Don't ask me why Microsoft hasn't added it yet; until recently, they were way behind with pop-up ad blocking, too.

One of the best ways to show off the power of tabs is to visit a site that has a lot of links to articles you want to read. A news site is a good choice. A favorite site among Linux users is http://www.slashdot.org, which proclaims itself to be "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." To see how tabbed browsing works, open the Slashdot site, hold down the Ctrl key, and left-click on several article links. Each link opens in a new tab located just below the Location field. Figure 2-12 shows three tabs; Google and Slashdot are in the background, and the tab in the foreground is displaying oreilly.com. You can also click your middle mouse button on a link for the same effect.

Figure 2-12: Each tab represents a different web page

A middle mouse button click entails different things, depending upon the type of mouse you have. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, it means clicking the scroll wheel as if it were a button. If you have a three-button mouse, it means clicking the middle mouse button. If you have a two-button mouse, it means clicking both the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously, a process known as chording.

Using tabs in this manner is useful because it allows sites you are interested in to be loaded in the background. While you continue to read your main news page, other articles can load in the tabs and will be ready for reading when you get done with the main page. It also means you don't lose your starting place while chasing down a series of links that caught your interest, but that were only tangential to the reason you opened your browser in the first place.

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Teaching Konqueror to Lie

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It is a sad fact that Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser has over 90 percent of the web browser market. What's even sadder is that many web sites insist that you use Internet Explorer if you want to visit the site at all. They do this because they want to make sure you have the best browsing experience possible and mistakenly believe that only IE can provide it. Some web sites advise you to use an updated browser and then suggest something like Internet Explorer Version 4.0 or higher. Konqueror is a far more advanced web browser than IE 4 ever was, and arguably more advanced than IE 6 is now, but that doesn't stop these web sites from mistakenly thinking you have an outdated browser.

In the end, if you want to visit these sites, you have no choice but to lie to them. (Extreme, but necessary!) Use the following steps to configure Konqueror to pretend to be a web browser that is acceptable to troublesome web sites.

Click Settings→ Configure Konqueror→ Browser Identification. In this panel, click the New button under Site Specific Identification. In the dialog that appears, type in the URL for the web site you intend to lie to. For example, if your problem is with the Weight Watchers web site, enter weightwatchers.com in the field "When browsing the following site." In the next field, "Use the following identification," select the web browser you will pretend to be. The best selection in the list is probably Safari 1.0 on Mac OS X, because as mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, Safari is based upon Konqueror code. If choosing Safari doesn't get you in, try using one of the Mozilla options, or IE on Mac PPC.

Web servers track the types of browsers that visit their sites. Therefore, by choosing something other than IE on Windows, you are reminding those running the web site that they should program for a broader set of users. Who knows—if enough people visit using a non-Internet Explorer browser, the web site owners just might change their policy

Figure 2-14 shows a completely filled out "pretend" browser identification dialog. The Update List button simply downloads a fresh list of available browser identifications.

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Using Bookmarks

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Like all good web browsers, Konqueror supports saved web site links known as bookmarks. Bookmarks, also known as Favorites to those who use Internet Explorer, make it easy to revisit your favorite web sites with the single click. In Konqueror, bookmarks can be used for web sites, FTP sites, or even a directory on your hard drive.

To bookmark a page you're currently viewing, simply select Bookmarks→ Add Bookmark from the drop-down menu. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-B, and there is also a right-click context menu option called Bookmark This Location. Once you create a new bookmark, open the Bookmark menu once again, and you will see the new bookmark at the bottom of the list. By default, new bookmarks are also displayed on the Bookmark toolbar. In Konqueror, this is the toolbar directly below the Location field, and it is probably already populated with several links to Mandrakesoft.

You've probably bookmarked dozens of web sites you visit regularly, and even more sites that you find of occasional interest and don't want to forget how to get there. But your bookmarks, some of which have very obscure names, can quickly become difficult to navigate if you don't apply some sort of organization scheme to them. Konqueror has a very useful bookmark manager feature to help with this task. To organize your list of bookmarks, select Bookmarks→ Edit Bookmarks to open the bookmark manager.

Since Konqueror just appends new bookmark entries to the bottom of the list, you may find that your bookmarks get messy quite quickly. You can easily rearrange bookmarks inside the bookmark manager by dragging them to desired positions on the list or into folders. You can create new folders by clicking the Create New Folder icon on the toolbar (it's the one that looks like a folder), by pressing Ctrl-N, or by right-clicking inside the manager and choosing Create New Folder (as shown in Figure 2-15). New folders are added to the top of the bookmark list.

Figure 2-15: The right-click menu in the bookmark manager

If you frequently bookmark pages, cleaning up bookmarks later on can be time consuming. A nice feature of Konqueror is the ability to place a bookmark in a specific folder at the time you create it. The easiest way to do this is through the Bookmarks menu. While viewing a page you want to bookmark, just click the Bookmarks menu, navigate to the folder you want to put the link in, and select Add Bookmark.

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Dealing with Helper Applications

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Helper applications are programs that work with a web browser to handle certain types of files, such as PDFs, Flash animations, and videos. Helper applications often require you to make some changes in your computer setup (also known as your configuration) so that your web browser knows which application to launch when it encounters certain types of files.

The Move CD includes the following helper applications:

Acrobat Reader

You can use this program to view Portable Document Files (PDFs). These files often show up on the Internet as links on various web sites. PDFs are used when their creators want to be certain you see the document exactly the way they want it displayed. The Acrobat Reader program is provided by Adobe and includes a small browser plug-in that makes it possible to view PDF images inside your web browser.

Macromedia's Flash Player

Many web sites contain multimedia sections that are viewable only with the Flash Player. These so-called Flash animations are very common on the Internet; many web sites use Flash to create interactive games or experiences for visitors. This program is the most commonly downloaded plug-in in the world.

Real's RealPlayer

You can use this program to view streaming sound and video over the Internet. Many news and music web sites provide multimedia streams that require this program.

Some other popular helper applications, such as Macromedia's Shockwave, do not run on Linux, so Konqueror doesn't support them. And although the Move CD does not contain support for Microsoft's WMA or Apple's QuickTime programs, it is possible to use these programs in Linux once you install a Linux distribution on your hard drive.

One of the great but confusing things about Linux is that there is often more than one program to accomplish any given task. There are multiple desktop environments (KDE, GNOME, WindowMaker, Xfce, and more), multiple web browsers (Konqueror, Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, Galeon, and others), and even more than one program for viewing PDF files.

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Accessing FTP Sites

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And as if all the other good things in this chapter weren't enough, Konqueror is also a full-featured File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client that supports file transfers, bookmarks, and drag and drop—all the usual stuff. To see Konqueror's FTP capabilities, just connect to the Internet, enter an FTP site into the Location field, and press Enter. For a very popular FTP site that hosts a lot of important open source projects, try ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub (Figure 2-22). The FTP site loads, and from this point on acts as if it were a folder on your computer (though it'll probably be slower to respond if you don't have a fast Internet connection). Once you've connected to an FTP site, you can download a file or folder by simply dragging it to a location in your home directory and selecting Copy Here.

Though FTP is less popular than it once was, Linux users still use it frequently. Often, the best way to get a copy of a Linux distribution is to download a CD image of it (usually called an ISO file) from an FTP site. The installers for many open source programs are also available only on FTP sites.

Figure 2-22: An FTP site opened in Konqueror

If the FTP site you're trying to access requires a password, enter the location in a format such as:

ftp://accountname@ftp.oreilly.com/

Note that your account name is added to the front of the FTP URL. Think of it like an email address for an FTP site.

Enter the correct password into the authorization dialog box (Figure 2-23) and press OK. If the login is accepted, you'll be directed to the FTP site.

Figure 2-23: Authenticating yourself for an FTP site

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The Mozilla Web Browser

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Although Konqueror is the default web browser on the Move CD, there is another web browser on the CD as well. This browser is called Mozilla.

Longtime web surfers may remember the company Netscape and its flagship web browser, Netscape Navigator. When Netscape lost the browser wars with Microsoft, it open-sourced its web browser in 1998. That means that all the code for that previously proprietary program became available for anybody in the world to use—and hopefully improve. Since that time, a group of developers has been working on creating a new and innovative browser from the original Navigator source code. This project took a lot of turns, including a ground-up rewrite, but eventually produced the Mozilla Suite, an all-in-one Internet application with a web browser, email client, newsgroup reader, and web page composer.

The Move CD includes the full Mozilla Suite, and since this is an application you can use on both Linux and Windows, it is worth taking a look at. The Mozilla browser has most of the features I've already described for Konqueror, including pop-up ad blocking and tabbed browsing. The Mozilla web page composer is covered in Chapter 12.

The part of Mozilla that determines how web pages are displayed is called the gecko rendering engine. Because it is an open source component, gecko is being used by half a dozen other web browsers, including the incredibly popular, cross-platform Firefox.

Mozilla is also available on Windows. If you want to install it on Windows, visit http://www.mozilla.org to download the program. On the Mozilla home page, you will see mentions of the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client. These programs are cross-platform as well. They aren't installed on the Move CD, but I'll provide more information about them in Chapter 12.

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Chapter 3: File Management

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Learning where files are on your system and understanding how to manage them is essential to truly mastering the use of a computer. Once you know how to work with files, you can expand this knowledge and learn how to manage files on remote computers, which is useful when you work in a networked environment.

Be sure to read Chapter 11 if you are interested in learning how to manage your files using the Linux command line (a popular method among most Linux users).

Though there are dozens of file managers in Linux, this chapter only covers one: Konqueror, the same program you just learned how to use for web browsing. Konqueror can work in two different ways—as a web browser and as a file manager—depending on how you launch, or start, the program.

Since you already know a bit about Konqueror, it should be easy to learn how to use it as a file manager, so let's just dive in and get started. To open Konqueror as a file manager, just double-click the Home icon on your desktop. (As you might guess, it's the icon that looks like a little house.)

Note that this is a different way to open Konqueror. In Chapter 2, you started the program by clicking the Konqueror icon on the kicker panel, which opened up Konqueror as a web browser. Clicking the Home icon on the desktop opens Konqueror as a file manager. Each icon loads a different Konqueror profile, which determines how the program behaves. You'll learn how to create a new profile and load it from an icon later in this chapter.

Clicking on the Home icon will to bring up a Konqueror window similar to the one shown in Figure 3-1. This window should look familiar to you. There are a few new icons on the toolbar, but basically it's very similar to the Konqueror window you used in Chapter 2.

Figure 3-1: Konqueror displaying your Home directory

Since you launched Konqueror using the Home icon, it naturally opens up showing the contents of your Home directory. Think of your Home directory like you think of your house—your own private place in an otherwise very public town. Your Home directory belongs to you; everything in it is yours, and nobody else is allowed in unless you give permission. In addition to your data files, your Home directory contains a lot of hidden files that control how programs behave. These files affect only

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Using Konqueror to Manage Files

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Though there are dozens of file managers in Linux, this chapter only covers one: Konqueror, the same program you just learned how to use for web browsing. Konqueror can work in two different ways—as a web browser and as a file manager—depending on how you launch, or start, the program.

Since you already know a bit about Konqueror, it should be easy to learn how to use it as a file manager, so let's just dive in and get started. To open Konqueror as a file manager, just double-click the Home icon on your desktop. (As you might guess, it's the icon that looks like a little house.)

Note that this is a different way to open Konqueror. In Chapter 2, you started the program by clicking the Konqueror icon on the kicker panel, which opened up Konqueror as a web browser. Clicking the Home icon on the desktop opens Konqueror as a file manager. Each icon loads a different Konqueror profile, which determines how the program behaves. You'll learn how to create a new profile and load it from an icon later in this chapter.

Clicking on the Home icon will to bring up a Konqueror window similar to the one shown in Figure 3-1. This window should look familiar to you. There are a few new icons on the toolbar, but basically it's very similar to the Konqueror window you used in Chapter 2.

Figure 3-1: Konqueror displaying your Home directory

Since you launched Konqueror using the Home icon, it naturally opens up showing the contents of your Home directory. Think of your Home directory like you think of your house—your own private place in an otherwise very public town. Your Home directory belongs to you; everything in it is yours, and nobody else is allowed in unless you give permission. In addition to your data files, your Home directory contains a lot of hidden files that control how programs behave. These files affect only your use of the programs; other users have their own hidden configuration files in their Home directories. You can use the techniques described in the section "Making Selections" in Chapter 1 to select files and folders inside the Konqueror window.

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Accessing Network Files

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Many people use their computers on a network with other computers. If your computer is part of a network, you'll probably want to access files on other computers. It's perfectly possible to do this with the Move CD. In this section, when I say remote computer , I simply mean any computer on your network other than the one you're currently working at.

Imagine you have a network consisting of three computers, two of which are sharing directories and files. One of these machines runs Windows and is sharing files in the directory wshared. Another computer is running Linux and sharing files in a directory called lshared. And then, of course, there is your Move machine, which isn't sharing any files.

In almost all instances, a Windows computer shares directories with other computers by using the Windows built-in sharing protocol known as Server Message Block (SMB). It's not important to know exactly what this means; just think, "SMB = Windows sharing," and don't worry about the specifics. Windows machines know how to automatically find other computers that are sharing directories using SMB. Usually, all you have to do is look in My Network Neighborhood, and you will see other Windows machines on your network. From there, you can access their shared folders.

Microsoft keeps the workings behind SMB a secret, but some crafty open source programmers have figured a lot of it out. Because of their efforts, you can connect to a Windows computer from Konqueror and view and use the files the Windows computer is sharing.

Doing this is actually pretty simple. First, open your Home directory. In the Location field, type smb:/ and press Enter. What you are typing is known as a protocol handler . With it, you are telling Konqueror to use the SMB protocol to find other SMB computers on the network. Konqueror will search the network for a few seconds and then show you any Windows workgroups it finds. (Workgroups are a way to group Windows computers together.)

In my case, I see a Windows workgroup called MSHOME. When I double-click that, I see a single Windows computer called CLAIRE (my wife's laptop). And inside CLAIRE are some shared folders, including one I set up just for this book called

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Konquering Advanced Techniques

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As you can see, there's a lot more to Konqueror than you might think. It's a core application in KDE and is central to most of what you do with your desktop. In the following section, I'll cover a few of the more advanced features of Konqueror.

Some of the features in Konqueror the web browser bleed over into Konqueror the file manager. One such feature is tabs. You can open a new tab in Konqueror by pressing Ctrl-Shift-N, and use it to browse to another part of the filesystem or start surfing the Web. Tabs allow you to keep all your file-browsing windows in one place. If you drag a file from one tab and hold it over another tab for one second, Konqueror switches to that other tab and you can drop the file in the window, using the standard choices to Copy, Move, or Link it. Be sure not to drop the file on top of the tab; if you do that, the program just tries to open the file.

You can also use bookmarks to manage files in the same way you use them in the Konqueror web browser. Bookmarks can provide quick links to directories, even on remote systems. To create a bookmark, just go into the directory you want to bookmark and choose Bookmarks→ Add Bookmark (or press Ctrl-B). To learn more about managing bookmarks, read the Section 2.6.

Archives are one or more files that are grouped together and compressed. You probably know of them as zip files. There are different types of archives, because Linux has several methods to compress a file. If you're sharing files with Windows users, select the option Create zip Archive. If you are sharing files with Linux users, use the gzipped or bzipped options instead—these methods are standard in the Linux community, and you'll be much cooler if you use them. Most open source software you download from the Internet will be compressed in one of these two formats.

If you right-click on one of the files you created earlier in this chapter and select Actions from the menu that appears, you'll see that can choose to add the file to an archive, burn it to CD, or to open a Terminal (see Figure 3-8).

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Accessing Files on Your Windows Hard Drive

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