great if you want an ongoing desktop or server system. For that reason, I recommend that if you have a spare computer, you install Linux permanently on that computer's hard disk to use with the rest of this book (as described in Chapter 9).
After you have a live CD or DVD in hand, do the following to get started:
1. Get a computer. If you have a standard PC (32-bit or 64-bit) with a CD/DVD drive and at least 1GB of memory (RAM) and at least a 400-MHz processor, you are ready to start. (Just make sure the image you download matches your computer's architecture – a 64-bit medium does not run on a 32-bit computer.)
2. Start the live CD/DVD. Insert the live CD/DVD or USB drive into your computer and reboot your computer. Depending on the boot order set on your computer, the live image might start up directly from the BIOS (the code that controls the computer before the operating system starts).
NOTE
If, instead of booting the live medium, your installed operating system starts up instead, you need to perform an additional step to start the live CD/DVD. Reboot again, and when you see the BIOS screen, look for some words that say something like “Boot Order.” The onscreen instructions may say to press the F12 or F1 key. Press that key immediately from the BIOS screen. Next, you should see a screen that shows available selections. Highlight an entry for CD/DVD or USB drive, and press Enter to boot the live image. If you don't see the drive there, you may need to go into BIOS setup and enable the CD/DVD or USB drive there.
3. Start Fedora. If the selected drive is able to boot, you see a boot screen. For Fedora, with Start Fedora highlighted, press Enter to start the live medium.
4. Begin using the desktop. For Fedora, the live medium lets you choose between installing Fedora or boots directly from the medium to a GNOME 3 desktop.
You can now proceed to the next section, “Using the GNOME 3 Desktop” (which includes information on using GNOME 3 in Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and other operating systems). The section following that covers the GNOME 2 desktop.
Using the GNOME 3 Desktop
The GNOME 3 desktop offers a radical departure from its GNOME 2.x counterparts. GNOME 2.x is serviceable, but GNOME 3 is elegant. With GNOME 3, a Linux desktop now appears more like the graphical interfaces on mobile devices, with less focus on multiple mouse buttons and key combinations and more on mouse movement and one-click operations.
Instead of feeling structured and rigid, the GNOME 3 desktop seems to expand as you need it to. As a new application is run, its icon is added to the Dash. As you use the next workspace, a new one opens, ready for you to place more applications.
After the computer boots up
If you booted up a live image, when you reach the desktop, you are assigned as the Live System User for your username. For an installed system, you see the login screen, with user accounts on the system ready for you to select and enter a password. Log in with the username and password you have defined for your system.
Figure 2.1 is an example of the GNOME 3 desktop screen that appears for Fedora. Press the Windows key (or move the mouse cursor to the upper-left corner of the desktop) to toggle between a blank desktop and the Overview screen.
Figure 2.1 Starting with the GNOME 3 desktop in Fedora.
There is very little on the GNOME 3 desktop when you start out. The top bar has the word “Activities” on the left, a clock in the middle, and some icons on the right for such things as adjusting audio volume, checking your network connection, and viewing the name of the current user. The Overview screen is where you can select to open applications, active windows, or different workspaces.
Navigating with the mouse
To get started, try navigating the GNOME 3 desktop with your mouse:
1. Toggle activities and windows. Move your mouse cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen, near the Activities button. Each time you move there, your screen changes between showing you the windows you are actively using and a set of available Activities. (This has the same effect as pressing the Windows key.)
2. Open windows from applications bar. Click to open some applications from the Dash on the left (Firefox, File Manager, Shotwell, or others). Move the mouse to the upper-left corner again, and toggle between showing all active windows minimized (Overview screen) and showing them overlapping (full-sized). Figure 2.2 shows an example of the miniature windows view.
3. Open applications from Applications list. From the Overview screen, select the Application button from the bottom of the left column (the button has nine dots in a box). The view changes to a set of icons representing the applications installed on your system, as shown in Figure 2.3.
4. View additional applications. From the Applications screen, you can change the view of your applications in several ways, as well as launch them in different ways:
● Page through– To see icons representing applications that are not onscreen, use the mouse to click dots on the right to page through applications. If you have a wheel mouse, you can use that instead to scroll the icons.
● Frequent– Select the Frequent button on the bottom of the screen to see often-run applications or the All button to see all applications again.
● Launching an application– To start the application you want, left-click its icon to open the application in the current workspace. Right-click to open a menu that lets you choose to open a New Window, add or remove the application from Favorites (so the application's icon appears on the Dash), or Show Details about the application. Figure 2.4 shows an example of the menu.
5. Open additional applications. Start up additional applications. Notice that as you open a new application, an icon representing that application appears in the Dash bar on the left. Here are other ways to start applications:
● Application icon– Click any application icon to open that application.
● Drop Dash icons on workspace– From the Windows view, you can drag any application icon from the Dash by pressing and holding the left mouse button on it and dragging that icon to any of the miniature workspaces on the right.
6. Use multiple workspaces. Move the mouse to the upper-left corner again to show a minimized view of all windows. Notice all the applications on the right jammed into a small representation of one workspace while an additional workspace is empty. Drag and drop a few of the windows to an empty desktop space. Figure 2.5 shows what the small workspaces look like. Notice that an additional empty workspace is created each time the last empty one is used. You can drag and drop the miniature windows to any workspace and then select the workspace to view it.
7. Use the window menu. Move the mouse to the upper-left corner of the screen to return to the active workspace (large window view). Right-click the title bar on a window to view the window menu. Try these actions from that menu:
● Minimize– Remove window temporarily from view.
● Maximize– Expand
