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Unit 4: Configuring Desktop

But there’s more to a desktop than just windows. As you’ve already seen, there’s a menuing notes
system and a panel, to name a couple of obvious items. And there are tools that provide a
GUI interface to the operating system (not just end-user applications). The rise in the number
of window managers has brought forth a “super-class” of tools called desktop environments.
These provide a complete interface to the operating system, including menus, panels, utilities
and applications, and all sorts of other fun stuff. The two most popular desktops.

4.1.1 using the Desktop as-is

The first thing you’ll notice, regardless of whether you select GNOME or KDE during installation,
is that the standard Fedora Core desktop is rather spartan. Because there isn’t a profit-oriented
company behind any of the various desktop organizations, you won’t see a desktop full of icons
that have been placed there for a goodly dose of lucre.
Instead, you’ll see three default icons: one that leads you to your home directory, one for trash,
and one (“Start Here”) that gives you a convenient location for the items you typically want to
use most often. See Figure 4.1 for the basic GNOME desktop.
The KDE desktop isn’t any more complicated (see Figure 4.1).

figure 4.1: the Default fedora core desktop with gnome

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