For those people who are curious about how Ubuntu works in terms of day-to-day use, here is a visual tour of my Ubuntu desktop workspace. Because there are so many features to go over, I will be dividing them up into a series of posts. Part 1 will cover the top panel. Click the pictures to enlarge them in a new window.
My Ubuntu Desktop
The first thing you will probably notice is that there is “stuff” on all four sides of the screen. The lightened strips where this stuff is are called panels. Panels are completely customizable in Ubuntu. I could make them any color, any opacity, even make them a picture from a file. Mine are all white – set at about 25% opacity. The “stuff” I referred to are called applets. They are all the little shortcuts and doodads that make Ubuntu’s desktop so much fun to use.
The second thing you probably noticed, if you’re used to Windows, is the lack of the traditional “Start” button. This is because many of the things that are stored on the Start menu are spread out over different panels. If you look up at the top panel, on the left side, you will see “Applications” next to the Ubuntu logo. This functions as “Programs” on the Start menu. This is where you can easily access any of your programs, and it works very similarly to the Program menu in Windows:
Example of the Applications Menu
I could do an entire post just on the Applications menu, but I’ll leave that for another time. Next to it is “Places” – this is pretty much just what it sounds like – places on your computer you might want to access. Here you can access your home folder, network, and mounted volumes (like CDs, Flash Drives, etc.). System is like the “control panel” of Windows – where you access all your preferences and administration tools. I could write an entire book on the System menu, but I’m fairly sure it’s been done, so I’ll leave that to the experts.
Moving on, in the middle of the top panel is my name. This is the User Switcher applet. When you click on it, it shows all the other users of your computer, and lets you switch users quickly and easily.
To the right of the top panel is my weather applet (it’s currently 45° and mostly sunny here in NW Michigan – very nice!), and the date/time applet, which is connected to my calendar program, so when I click it, I can see my appointments and tasks in a little mini-calendar.
Last on the top panel is the power button (far right corner of the screen). This is pretty self-explanatory – click it, and a menu comes up with power, restart, and log-off options.
Next post: the right and bottom panels.
