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Fedora: Road To The Desktop - Page 1
This article is intended on helping those that are interested in either switching
to Linux or are curious as to what Linux has to offer. I will try to cover
the basic components of a desktop and how Fedora can perform these basic tasks.
We will cover the installation part of Fedora, to playing music, surfing the
web and chatting. A bit of info on what Fedora is…”The Fedora
Project is a Red-Hat-sponsored and community-supported open source project.
The Fedora project is a merger between Red Hat Linux and Fedora Linux.”
Installation
Installing Fedora is as straight forward as installing Windows XP except for
some differences in where you have to choose your monitor make and other hardware
during the install process rather than having to configure these settings
after installing; such as the Windows case. Fedora, like just about any other
Linux distribution, let’s you easily configure your new installation
depending on what your needs are. The choices are clear: Desktop, Workstation,
Server or you can choose a custom install which lets you take complete control
of the installation process. Because this article is based on helping users
migrate to Linux, Fedora in this case, we will choose the desktop install.
Installation Type
Creating the Partition
If you have a separate hard drive ready for Fedora, then let the installer
have full control over the creating the partition. However, if you have partitioned
your current drive and already have Windows installed, then you would use
Disk Druid which will allow you to choose your partition, file system types,
mount points, and more. I let the installer automatically set the partition.
Fedora lets you choose how you want to use the space on your drive. You can
select either to remove any current partitions on the drive or use the free
existing space. The next screen is just a review of what your new partition
will look like. Here you are also allowed to edit, delete or add partitions.
Disk Druid
Boot Loader
GRUB, GRand Unified Boot loader, is a boot loader which is the first software
program that runs when a computer starts. It is responsible for loading and
transferring control to the operating system kernel software. You want to
let GRUB be your new boot loader even if you have Windows installed, it will
automatically detect any Windows version you may have and give you the option
to boot into it during startup.
Network
Any networking devices that are installed on your system will be automatically
detected by the installer. You want to set the hostname automatically via
DHCP. The firewall configuration shows just how concerned Linux is with security.
If you don’t know what a firewall is, here is a quick definition: “A
firewall is a set of related programs, located at a network gateway server
that protects the resources of a private network from users from other networks.
Basically, a firewall, working closely with a router program, filters all
network packets to determine whether to forward them toward their destination.”
That said we want to enable the firewall, and leave all services unchecked
since we are migrating to a desktop.
Packages
The following three prompts by the installer are user’s choice so we
will skip those and go straight to choosing software packages. The default
software packages selected by the installer are very good but we want to be
able to add other software applications so we go right ahead and choose customize.
From the package group selection, the following were chosen:
• X Window System
• GNOME Desktop Environment
• KDE Desktop Environment
• Everything under “Applications”
• Under “System” both Administration Tools and Printing
Support
Next comes the actual installation, make sure you have the CD’s that
you are prompted for. The installation is fairly fast if you have a pretty
modern pc, say about over 1 GHZ and over 256 RAM.
Creating a boot disk is always a good idea just in case your boot loader fails.
The setup wizard will guide you through several steps needed to complete the
installation, such as license agreement and setting up users.
Using Fedora
Multiple Desktop Environments
Yeah, I like the boot screen too. You notice how clean the desktop is. I suggest
you get familiar with the new look, since this is going to be your new home.
Desktop
KDE and GNOME are powerful Open Source graphical desktop environments for
Linux workstations. Though both look very similar, they differ in many ways.
Though I personally prefer KDE, you are welcome to try both and decide which
one you prefer, or just use both.
Office Suite
The first topic I think concerns many Windows users is the compatibility with
their current Word and other MS Office documents. OpenOffice.org is a multi-platform
office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such
as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program.
OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including
those of Microsoft Office.
OpenOffice.org is already installed and ready to use. I will not write too
much about OpenOffice.org since there are several reviews one of which is
located here. However, there are no special skills needed to run OpenOffice.org,
if you are familiar with MS Office, you’ll fit right in with OpenOffice.org.
Located by clicking on the main menu button, under Office tab, OpenOffice.org
includes the following office suite applications:
• Writer – Similar to Word, it is a full featured word processor.
It can handle various file formats including Word .doc file format. This means
that you can open and save in the word format and share them just as if you
were working with MS Word.
Writer
• CALC – The same as Excel, it’s a spreadsheet application.
Calc has tons of features including natural language formulas that let you
create formulas using words, and the ability to create 2-D and 3-D graphs.
In addition, Calc is completely compatible with Excel file format.
Calc
• Impress – OpenOffice.org office suite also includes a presentation
creator. Impress can create professional presentations by including easy to
use tools and the ability to create your own animation. Again, Impress offers
full compatibility with MS PowerPoint.
Impress
• Draw - From a quick sketch to a complex plan, DRAW gives you the tools
to communicate with graphics and diagrams. It won't organize or edit your
digital photos as well as other programs but if you need to create a diagram,
picture or illustration then you'll be glad to have it.
Draw
Fedora: Road To The Desktop - Page
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Posted by Team Flexbeta on 16 March 2004 (60009 views) Rating: 3.66
Multimedia
Fedora includes several audio and video players, and other useful audio applications
such as a CD Ripper.
Sound Juicer CD Ripper let’s you back up your music CD easily. The controls
are straight forward and simple to use. The tracks are extracted using the
Ogg Vorbis audio compression format as well as other formats such as MP3,
Wave and FLAC. There is also a sound recorder for when you want to dictate
some ideas you may have just had. There are also built in jukebox players
such as Rythmbox which lets you organize your audio files and play them. If
you are accustomed to playing your audio files using Winamp, there is also
a Linux version of Winamp available on the web.
Sound Juicer
Rhythmbox
Though Fedora Core 1 does not include any MPEG or any licensed codec with
their distribution(s), this doesn't mean you can't get them. There are several
free players out there. Xine is a free multimedia player. It plays back CDs,
DVDs, and VCDs. It also decodes multimedia files like AVI, MOV, WMV, and MP3
from local disk drives, and displays multimedia streamed over the Internet.
It interprets many of the most common multimedia formats available - and some
of the most uncommon formats, too.
Another media player available for free is MPlayer. MPlayer is a movie and
animation player that supports a wide range of codec’s and file formats,
including MPEG 1/2/4, DivX 3/4/5, Windows Media 7/8/9, RealAudio/Video up
to 9, QuickTime 5/6, and Vivo 1/2. It has many MMX/SSE(2)/3Dnow(Ex) optimized
native audio and video codec’s, and allows using XAnim's and RealPlayer's
binary codec plugins, and Win32 codec DLLs.
Fedora: Road To The Desktop - Page
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Posted by Team Flexbeta on 16 March 2004 (60010 views) Rating: 3.66
Internet
Web Browsing
Fedora includes the following web browsers: Mozilla 1.4.1 and Konqueror 3.1.4-6.
Both are accessible via Main Menu>Internet location. Though both browsers
offer great performance, I prefer to use Mozilla Firefox 0.8. If you prefer
to use Firefox also, once you download it and extract the compressed file,
here is a quick tip on how to get it on your desktop. Right click on the desktop
and select “Create Launcher”, then type in the for Name, Firefox;
Generic name, FireFox; and Comment, Mozilla Firefox. For the Command, use
the Browse button to search for the “firefox” file, mine was located
in “/home/gsurface/Desktop/Linux/firefox/firefox”. For Type, leave
as Application. Click on the Icon button to browse for the Firefox icon which
is located in /firefox/icons/mozicon50.xpm. Once you press ok, you should
see the Firefox icon on your desktop.
Creating a launcher
Mozilla Firefox
E-Mail
For email, users have several choices between Ximian Evolution, Mozilla and
KMail. All offer great features such as a calendar, a task module and contacts
database. Evolution’s main window displays a summary of all the events
such as new mail, tasks, appointments and even weather. Another great application
included is Pan. Pan is a newsreader which supports yEnc, offline news reading,
article filtering, multiple connections, and more features for power users
and alt.binaries fans.
Mozilla Mail
Ximian Evolution
Chat
Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging client compatible with AIM (Oscar
and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and
Zephyr networks. One chat client for all your chatting networks. Gaim is extremely
easy to set up and saves you the hassle of having to download different applications
for different protocols. If you are only an AIM user, Fedora also features
Kit 1.4 which is an AOL instant messaging client. Fedora also includes X-chat
and KSirc, which are both IRC clients.
Gaim
Other internet applications available include a download manager dubbed KGet.
KGet has all the features you will find in a paid version of an internet download
manager. KGet keeps all your downloads in one dialog and you can add and remove
transfers. Transfers can be paused, resumed, queued or scheduled. Dialogs
display info about status of transfers - progress, size, speed and remaining
time. GFTP, an FTP client, is also included. GFTP features support for various
protocols, drag-N-drop support as well as tons of other features.
KGet
Gftp
There is also a wizard which guides you through setting up an internet connection.
You can setup your dialup, DSL, wireless or Ethernet connection.
Internet Wizard
Utilities
CD Burning
Fedora features GnomeToaster 1.0 Beta 6 which is a full featured CD burning
suite. It features drag-N-drop support; write mp3 files to a disc on-the-fly
as well as other features. GnomeToaster is located via Main Menu>System
Tools>More System Tools tab.
Gnome Toaster
Similar to Windows Task Manager, System Monitor displays the active services
running. Though you will notice that plenty more information is available
than Windows Task Manager.
Process Listing
Resource Monitor
Accessing the CD-Rom or Floppy drive is a bit different than that of the Windows
way. You must first mount the device before you access it. This is easily
done in KDE by right clicking on the desktop, select Create New>CD/DVD
ROM Device. You can customize the icon here and set permissions. Next click
on the device tab and select “/dev/cdrom (/mnt/cdrom)” from the
drop down list. Accessing the drive in GNOME is a bit easier. In GNOME, right
click on the Desktop and select Disks>CD-ROM, that’s it, the CD-ROM
device should be mounted on the Desktop.
Fedora lets you skin or change the theme of your desktop environment. Simply
click on Main Menu>Preferences>Theme. Several themes are available for
your skinning pleasures. Also under preferences is Gnome Pilot, a package
of utilities for the 3Com Palm Pilot. Features include support for multiple
pilots/users and cradles, management of users and pilots, a suite of conduits
for GNOME applications, and GNOME compliant utilities.
Choosing a theme
Setting up keyboard shortcuts is a snap. Under preferences choose, Keyboard
shortcuts, there you can setup your keyboard key strokes to perform a specified
action when pressed.
Games
Thirty eight games are available via the Main Menu>Games tab. Remember
connect-four? Fedora features a game similar to this called Four-in-a-row.
There is a very challenging chess game which should keep you busy for a few
hours. Another game which you will enjoy too play is Tux Raiser. Pay close
attention to some of the details in the background; this isn’t solitaire
you know.
Chess
Tux
Graphics
The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The setup is very similar
to that of Photoshop. It has many of the features already available in Photoshop,
like cropping and stamping. It is an extremely capable piece of software with
many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality
photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production
image renderer, an image format converter, and plenty more.
Gimp
Linux has shown much improvement through the years and keeps on growing. All
the applications listed in this article are included with the Linux installation,
with the exception of Xine. It is more than twice the amount of applications
that Windows is packed with. There are at least two applications to choose
for each task desired. Getting used to a whole new operating system does take
time but most of all, patience and determination from the user. However, I
do believe that the Layout that most Linux distributions use, Fedora in this
case, will not leave the user stranded after being accustomed to a MS Windows
environment.
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