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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 window to maximum size.

● Move– Change window to moving mode. Moving your mouse moves the window. Click to fix the window to a spot.

● Resize– Change the window to resize mode. Moving your mouse resizes the window. Click to keep the size.

● Workspace selections– Several selections let you use workspaces in different ways. Select Always on Top to make the current window always on top of other windows in the workspace. Select Always on Visible Workspace to always show the window on the workspace that is visible. Or select Move to Workspace Up or Move to Workspace Down to move the window to the workspace above or below, respectively.

Figure 2.2 Show all windows on the desktop minimized.

Figure 2.3 Show the list of available applications.

Figure 2.4 Click the middle mouse button to display an application's selection menu.

Figure 2.5 As new desktops are used, additional ones appear on the right.

If you don't feel comfortable navigating GNOME 3 with your mouse, or if you don't have a mouse, the next section helps you navigate the desktop from the keyboard.

Navigating with the keyboard

If you prefer to keep your hands on the keyboard, you can work with the GNOME 3 desktop directly from the keyboard in a number of ways, including these:

● Windows key– Presses the Windows key on the keyboard. On most PC keyboards, this is the key with the Microsoft Windows logo on it next to the Alt key. This toggles the mini-window (Overview) and active-window (current workspace) views. Many people use this key often.

● Select different views– From the Windows or Applications view, hold Ctrl+Alt+Tab to see a menu of the different views (see Figure 2.6). Still holding the Ctrl+Alt keys, press Tab again to highlight one of the following icons from the menu and release to select it:

● Top bar– Keeps the current view.

● Dash– Highlights the first application in the application bar on the left. Use arrow keys to move up and down that menu, and press Enter to open the highlighted application.

● Windows– Selects the Windows view.

● Applications– Selects the Applications view.

● Search– Highlights the search box. Type a few letters to show only icons for applications that contain the letters you type. When you have typed enough letters to uniquely identify the application you want, press Enter to launch the application.

● Message tray– Reveals the bottom message tray. This tray lets you view notifications and open removable media.

● Select an active window– Return to any of your workspaces (press the Windows key if you are not already on an active workspace). Press Alt+Tab to see a list of all active windows (see Figure 2.7). Continue to hold the Alt key as you press the Tab key (or right or left arrow keys) to highlight the application you want from the list of active desktop application windows. If an application has multiple windows open, press Alt+‘ (backtick, located above the Tab key) to choose among those sub-windows. Release the Alt key to select it.

● Launch a command or application– From any active workspace, you can launch a Linux command or a graphical application. Here are some examples:

● Applications– From the Overview screen, press Ctrl+Alt+Tab and continue to press Tab until the Applications icon is highlighted; then release Ctrl+Alt. The Applications view appears, with the first icon highlighted. Use the Tab key or arrow keys (up, down, right, and left) to highlight the application icon you want, and press Enter.

● Command box– If you know the name (or part of a name) of a command you want to run, press Alt+F2 to display a command box. Type the name of the command you want to run into the box (try gnome-calculator to open a calculator application, for example).

● Search box– From the Overview screen, press Ctrl+Alt+Tab and continue to press Tab until the magnifying glass (Search) icon is highlighted; then release Ctrl+Alt. In the search box now highlighted, type a few letters in an application's name or description (type scr to see what you get). Keep typing until the application you want is highlighted (in this case, Screenshot), and press Enter to launch it.

● Dash– From the Overview screen, press Ctrl+Alt+Tab and continue to press Tab until the star (Dash) icon is highlighted; then release Ctrl+Alt. From the Dash, move the up and down arrows to highlight an application you want to launch, and press Enter.

● Escape– When you are stuck in an action you don't want to complete, try pressing the Esc key. For example, after pressing Alt+F2 (to enter a command), opening an icon from the top bar, or going to an overview page, pressing Esc returns you to the active window on the active desktop.

Figure 2.6 Press Ctrl+Alt+Tab to display additional desktop areas to select.

Figure 2.7 Press Alt+Tab to select which running application to go to.

I hope you now feel comfortable navigating the GNOME 3 desktop. Next, you can try running some useful and fun desktop applications from GNOME 3.

Setting up the GNOME 3 desktop

Much of what you need GNOME 3 to do for you is set up automatically. However, you need to make a few tweaks to get the desktop the way you want. Most of these setup activities are available from the System Settings window (see Figure 2.8). Open the Settings icon from the Applications list.

Figure 2.8 Change desktop settings from the System Settings window.

Here are some suggestions for configuring a GNOME 3 desktop:

● Configure networking– A wired network connection is often configured automatically when you boot up your Fedora system. For wireless, you probably have to select your wireless network and add a password when prompted. An icon in the top bar lets you do any wired or wireless network configuration you need to do. Refer to Chapter 14, “Administering Networking,” for further information on configuring networking.

● Personal settings– Tools in this group let you change your desktop background (Background), use different online accounts (Online Accounts), and set your language and date and currency format based on region (Region and Language) and screen locking (Screen). To change your background, open the System Settings window, select Background, and then select from the available Wallpapers. To add your own Background, download a wallpaper image you like to your Pictures folder, click the Wallpapers box to change it to Pictures folder, and choose the image you want.

● Bluetooth– If your computer has Bluetooth hardware, you can enable that device to communicate with other Bluetooth devices (such as a Bluetooth headset or printer).

● Printers– Instead of using the System Settings window to configure a printer, refer to Chapter 16, “Configuring a Print server,” for information on setting up a printer using the CUPS service.

● Sound– Click the Sound settings button to adjust sound input and output devices on your system.

Extending the GNOME 3 desktop

If the GNOME 3 shell doesn't do everything you like, don't despair. You can add extensions to provide additional functionality to GNOME 3. Also, a GNOME Tweak Tool lets you change advanced settings in GNOME 3.

Using GNOME shell extensions

GNOME shell extensions are available to change the way your GNOME desktop looks and behaves. Visit the GNOME Shell Extensions site (http://extensions.gnome.org) from your Firefox browser on your GNOME 3 desktop. That site tells you what extensions you have installed and which ones are available for you to install (you must select to allow the site to see those extensions).

Because the extensions page knows what extensions you have and the version of GNOME 3 you are running, it can present only those extensions that are compatible with your system. Many of the extensions help you add back in features from GNOME 2, including these:

● Applications Menu– Adds an Applications menu to the top panel, just as it was in GNOME 2.

● Places Status Indicator– Adds a systems status menu, similar to the Places menu in GNOME 2, to let you quickly navigate to useful folders on your system.

● Window list– Adds a list of active windows to the top panel, similar to the Window list that appeared on the bottom panel in GNOME 2.

To install an extension, simply select the ON button next to the name. Or you can click the extension name from the list to see the extension's page, and click the button on that page from OFF to ON. Click Install when you are asked if you want to download and install the extension. The extension is then added to your desktop.

Figure 2.9 shows an example of the Applications Menu (the GNOME foot icon), Window List (showing several active applications icons), and Places Status Indicator (with folders displayed from a drop-down menu) extensions installed.

Figure 2.9 Extensions add features to the GNOME 3 desktop.

More than 100 GNOME shell extensions are available now, and more are being added all the time. Other popular extensions include Notifications Alert (which alerts you of unread messages), Presentation Mode (which prevents the screensaver from coming on when you are giving a presentation), and Music Integration (which integrates popular music players into GNOME 3 so you are alerted about songs being played).

Because the Extensions site can keep track of your extensions, you can click the Installed extensions button at the top of the page and see every extension that is installed. You can turn the extensions off and on from there and even delete them permanently.

Using the GNOME Tweak Tool

If you don't like the way some of the built-in features of GNOME 3 behave, you can change many of them with the GNOME Tweak Tool. This tool is not installed by default with the Fedora GNOME Live CD, but you can add it by installing the gnome-tweak-tool package. (See Chapter 10, “Getting and Managing Software,” for information on how to install software packages in Fedora.)

After installation, the GNOME Tweak Tool is available by launching the Advanced Settings icon from your Applications screen. Start with the Desktop category to consider what you might want to change in GNOME 3. Figure 2.10 shows the Tweak Tool (Advanced Settings window) displaying Appearance settings.

Figure 2.10 Change desktop settings using the GNOME Tweak Tool (Advanced Settings).

If fonts are too small for you, select the Fonts category and click the plus sign next to the Scaling Factor box to increase the font size. Or change fonts individually for documents, window titles, or monospace fonts.

Under Top Bar settings, you can change how clock information is displayed in the top bar or set whether to show the week number in the calendar. To change the look of the desktop, select the Appearance category and change the Icons theme and GTK+ theme as you like from drop-down boxes.

Starting with desktop applications

The Fedora GNOME 3 desktop live DVD comes with some cool applications you can start using immediately. To use GNOME 3 as your everyday desktop, you should install it permanently to your computer's hard disk and add the applications you need (a word processor, image editor, drawing application, and so on). If you are just getting started, the following sections list some cool applications to try out.

Managing files and folders with Nautilus

To move, copy, delete, rename, and otherwise organize files and folders in GNOME 3, you can use the Nautilus file manager. Nautilus comes with the GNOME desktop and works like other file managers you may use in Windows or Mac.

To open Nautilus, click the Files icon from the GNOME Dash or Applications list. Your user account starts with a set of folders designed to hold the most common types of content: Music, Pictures, Videos, and the like. These are all stored in what is referred to as your Home directory. Figure 2.11 shows Nautilus open to a home directory.

Figure 2.11 Manage files and folders from the Nautilus window.

When you want to save files you downloaded from the Internet or created with a word processor, you can organize them into these folders. You can create new folders as needed, drag and drop files and folders to copy and move them, and delete them.

Because Nautilus is not much different from most file managers you have used on other computer systems, this chapter does not go into detail about how to use drag-and-drop and traverse folders to find your content. However, I do want to make a few observations that may not be obvious about how to use Nautilus:

● Home folder– You have complete control over the files and folders you create in your Home folder. Most other parts of the filesystem are not accessible to you as a regular user.

● Filesystem organization– Although it appears under the name Home, your home folder is actually located in the filesystem under the /home folder in a folder named after your username – for example, /home/liveuser or /home/chris. In the next few chapters, you learn how the filesystem is organized (especially in relation to the Linux command shell).

● Working with files and folders– Right-click a file or folder icon to see how you can act on it. For example, you can copy, cut, move to trash (delete), or open any file or folder icon.

● Creating folders– To create a new folder, right-click in a folder window and select New Folder. Type the new folder name over the highlighted Untitled Folder, and press Enter to name the folder.

● Accessing remote content– Nautilus can display content from remote servers as well as the local filesystem. In Nautilus, select Connect to Server from the file menu. You can connect to a remote server via SSH (secure shell), FTP with login, Public FTP, Windows share, WebDav (HTTP), or Secure WebDav (HTTPS). Add appropriate user and password information as needed, and the content of the remote server appears in the Nautilus window. Figure 2.12 shows an example of a Nautilus window displaying folders from a remote server over SSH protocol (ssh://192.168.0.138).

Figure 2.12 Access remote folders using the Nautilus Connect to Server feature.

Installing and managing additional software

The Fedora Live Desktop comes with a web browser (Firefox), a file manager (Nautilus), and a few other common applications. However, there are many other useful applications that, because of their size, just wouldn't fit on a live CD. If you install the live Fedora Workstation to your hard disk (as described in Chapter 9), you almost certainly will want to add some more software.

NOTE

You can try installing software if you are running the live medium. But keep in mind that because writeable space on a live medium uses virtual memory (RAM), that space is limited and can easily run out. Also, when you reboot your system, anything you install disappears.

When Fedora is installed, it is automatically configured to connect your system to the huge Fedora software repository that is available on the Internet. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can run the Add/Remove software tool to download and install any of thousands of Fedora packages.

Although the entire facility for managing software in Fedora (the yum and rpm features) is described in detail in Chapter 10, “Getting and Managing Software,” you can start installing some software packages without knowing much about how the feature works. Begin by going to the applications screen and opening the Software window.

With the Software window open, you can select the applications you want to install by searching (type the name into the Find box) or choosing a category. Each category offers packages sorted by subcategories and featured packages in that category. Figure 2.13 shows the results of a search for the word adventure in the description or name of a package.

Figure 2.13 Download and install software from the huge Fedora repository.

You can read a description of each package that comes up in your search. When you are ready, click Install to install the package and any dependent packages needed to make it work.

By searching for and installing some common desktop applications, you should be able to start using your desktop effectively. Refer to Chapter 10 for details on how to add software repositories and use yum and rpm commands to manage software in Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Playing music with Rhythmbox

Rhythmbox is the music player that comes on the Fedora GNOME Live Desktop. You can launch Rhythmbox from the GNOME 3 Dash and immediately play music CDs, podcasts, or Internet radio shows. You can import audio files in WAV and Ogg Vorbis formats, or add plug-ins for MP3 or other audio formats.

Figure 2.14 shows an example of the Rhythmbox window with music playing from an imported audio library.

Figure 2.14 Play music, podcasts, and Internet radio from Rhythmbox.

Here are a few ways you can get started with Rhythmbox:

● Radio– Double-click the Radio selection under Library and choose a radio station from the list that appears to the right.

● Podcasts– Search for podcasts on the Internet and find the URL for one that interests you. Right-click the Podcasts entry and select New Podcast Feed. Paste or type in the URL to the podcast, and click Add. A list of podcasts from the site you selected appears to the right. Double-click the one you want to listen to.

● Audio CDs– Insert an audio CD, and press Play when it appears in the Rhythmbox window. Rhythmbox also lets you rip and burn audio CDs.

● Audio files– Rhythmbox can play WAV and Ogg Vorbis files. By adding plug-ins, you can play many other audio formats, including MP3. Because there are patent issues related to the MP3 format, the ability to play MP3s is not included with Fedora. In Chapter 10, I describe how to get software you need that is not in the repository of your Linux distribution.

Plug-ins are available for Rhythmbox to get cover art, show information about artists and songs, add support for music services (such as Last.fm and Magnatune), and fetch song lyrics.

Stopping the GNOME 3 desktop

When you are finished with your GNOME 3 session, select the down arrow button in the upper-right corner of the top bar. From there, you can choose the On/Off button, which allows you to Log Out, Suspend your session, or switch to a different user account without logging out.