|
Intelligentedu.com
Home
-> Learn
About Computers, Software Development & Information Technology
-> Userguide
to Using the Linux Desktop
|
| |
The previous chapters have provided a guide on how to use the graphical desktop of a typical Linux system. However, they have just scratched the surface of the features and functions of the Desktop environment and the applications therein. In this section we shall look at the resources available to a user to get more information and help.
Much of the details on how to use and exploit further the software available is available as online documentation on the system itself. The online documentation is available in two types, the Help from the Main Menu and/or applications and the text-based Unix-style man and info commands.
Desktop Help
The Desktop Help can be invoked from the Main Menu,
Main Menu --> Help
Invoking this will display the screen below.
Fig. GNOME Help Screen
The Help content is divided into several main categories. So you will need to select the appropriate category to view the help content of interest. Most of the information on how to use the Desktop can be found from the Help here. For example, to view the help information on the File Manage, select,
Desktop --> Nautilus File Manager
Fig. File Manager Help Screen
Help Selection in Applications
Most of the Desktop applications have a Help button
in their main menubar at the top. Selecting this will give you more
information on how to use the application. The Help screen for the
OpenOffice.org Writer application is displayed below.
Fig. OpenOffice.org Writer Help Screen
Man and Info Pages
As discussed in Chapter 11, from the command line interface using a Shell, it is possible to access a comprehensive help system on the commands available via the man and info commands. For example, to find out more on how to use the directory listing command, ls, open up a shell (see Chapter 11) and at the command prompt enter,
$ man ls
More detailed information on certain commands may be found using the info command, e.g.
$ info ls
To learn how to use the man and info commands, make use of these commands themselves e.g.
$ man info
$ man man
$ info info
$ info man
There is a lot of information available on the WWW on all the software available on the system. These may be classified broadly as follows:
Websites of Specific Software
Below are links to the websites of the software applications discussed in this guide.
Linux Distributions and/or Vendors
Links to specific Linux distributions and vendors are listed below. In particular the website Distrowatch should be consulted for information and links to the hundreds of Linux distributions available today.
… (for links and information on many Linux and other OSS operating system distributions see the Distrowatch website below)
General Linux Websites
Resources catering to new Linux users can be found in many of the website links below.
Free and Open Source Software Websites
In this section, general information on Open Source and Free Software may be obtained as well as news and updates.