Chapter 3. Getting Started with the Desktop
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 is sporting yet another new look for the desktop. Designs feature the new Fedora logo, along with clouds and hot air balloons. The two desktop environments available with Fedora, KDE 3.5.6 and GNOME 2.18, have made further improvements to the Fedora desktop. 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 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. (See Chapter 1 for a description of the X Window System.)
This chapter ...
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