Chapter 3. Getting Started with the Desktop

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 CentOS, you have an incredible amount of control over how your desktop behaves and how your desktop is arranged.

The basic desktop is provided 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 the XFree86 X server in other Linux distributions, special features of the X.org server described later in this chapter might interest you. (See Chapter 1 for a description of the X Window System.)

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 GNOME, KDE, and Xfce 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 ...

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