The KDE window manager

KDE's taskbar and main menus

KDE's graphical interface is probably Linux most user-friendly one. It is very similar in appearance to the Windows XP interface with some characteristics of MacOS. In the bottom of the screen we have the ``taskbar'', similar in spirit to the MS Windows taskbar but with some particularities. We can identify 9 icons. from left-to-right we have

1. The ``Home'' and ``run'' buttons
2. The KDE button
3. The Shell button
4. A ``home'' button
5. Konqueror button
6. Email button
7. SoundManager button
8. Command line button
9. Program list
10. Virtual Desktop list
11. Time of day

The task bar is in the bottom of the screen and the program pop up menu is activated by clicking the icon with letter ``K''.

The number and names of programs available at the menu can vary immensely, depending on what is available in your version of Linux.

Windows software counterparts

Most programs that Microsoft users are used to have available in their systems have a similar counterpart in Linux. We will list below some of the most popular windows applications and one counterpart in the Linux world (THIS WAY OR THE OPPOSITE?)

Windows explorer

- A file browser similar to the Windows Explorer is Konqueror. Similar to the windows counterpart users can browse directories by clicking in the folder icons and by using the navigation buttons on the top part of Konqueror's windows. Images, sound files, text files and movies are automatically opened using appropriate application. There is one important difference however, Konqueror can also be used as an Internet browser. When the application is initially launched a help page is displayed in the browser. Internet browsing is started by typing a valid web address in the location text field, file browsing is activated by clicking in the home icon, which opens the user home directory in the local disk (equivalent to the MyDocuments folder of Windows XP). A Google search in the Internet can be initiated directly by clicking the keywords in the search text box on the top right. Two interesting features of this browser is the ability of opening many tabs, each one with a different display (wen address or directory) and of splitting individual tabs both vertically or horizontally (check the window pull-down menu. This facilitates copying files from one directory to another without the need of opening two windows.

Internet Explorer

Even though Konqueror can be used to browse the Internet, there is another application more similar to the Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is the successor of Netscape the first Internet browser and for many years Internet Explorer's main competitor. Like Konqueror, Firefox has a special text box in the upper right corner that can be used to directly initiate a web search. Different from Konqueror, this search can be performed not only by Google, but also by other search engines like yahoo, amazon and Ebay (try clicking in the icon depicting a Lupe). Users can even add other search engines to the menu. Another browser available in some Linux distributions is Epiphany. There is also a Windows version of Firefox.

Outlook Express

Email can be managed in Linux using Mozilla Thunderbird. As with the internet browser, the interface of the email client Thunderbird is similar enough to that of Outlook Express to make any lengthy descriptions unnecessary. There is a Windows version of Thunderbird.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office users can perform similar tasks in Linux using two Linux Package. Programs of both packages can work with Microsoft-compatible formats (.doc, .ppt, .xls). The programs of these packages can be found in the ``Office'' sub menu:

• OpenOffice.org This system, developed in the language Java by Sun computers can be also installed in Microsoft Windows systems. The main programs available are (more details can be found at http://www.openoffice.org): :
  • Write - a word processor very similar to MS Word,
  • Calc - a spreadheed similar to MS Excel
  • Impress - a presentation manager similar to PowerPoint
  • Base - a database manager similar to MS Access
• KDE Office - This system is part of the KDE window manager package. There are also Windows versions of all programs. The main programs available are (more details can be found at http://www.koffice.org):
  • KWrite - a word processor very similar to MS Word,
  • KSpread - a spreadsheet similar to MS Excel
  • KPresenter - a presentation manager similar to MS PowerPoint
  • KExi - a database manager similar to MS Access

Notepad

Notepad is text editor. This is different from MS Word, which is a text processors. Many people in the Windows world use MS Word to edit both formatted documents and unformatted text. Text editors are much faster and lightweight than word processors. Besides, if your file is not a .doc document, it is just easier to use Notepad directly. The main problem with notepad is the absolute lack of nice editing features. The Linux operating system is proficuous in text editors. Probably the most flexible text editing system is Emacs (or Xemacs, a slight different version). Emacs provides all the basic text editing functions but is also a configurable editor an can be used to read email, run programs, compile computer programs. <DO WE TALK ABOUT IT?>. A much simpler alternative to emacs is Kedit, very similar in spirit to Notepad.