Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed

100CHAPTER 4Understanding Linux Concepts. Places: Allows the user to open a graphical file browser (by selecting Home Folder,Desktop, or Computer), go directly to bookmarked folders, connect to networkshares as discussed in Part IV, “Network Services,” search the filesystem, or quicklyaccess recently opened documents.. System: Provides menu items to set preferences, perform administration tasks, viewavailable documentation, lock the screen so others can’t access it while you areaway from your computer, log out of the graphical desktop, and suspend or shutdownthe computer.TIPMouse over the system time on the top panel to display the date, or click on it to viewa calendar.From left to right, the bottom panel includes a button to minimize all the windows andshow the desktop area, a list of open application windows, a workspace switcher, and thetrash icon.To bring a different application window forward on the desktop, click on its title in thelist of open windows on the bottom panel. You can also switch between open windowsby using the key combination Alt+Tab.To the left of the Trash icon, there are four small squares. These are miniature representationsof desktop workspaces. Each workspace has the same desktop background, icons onthe desktop, and panels. The difference is that each workspace contains different applicationwindows. At first, this might seem unnecessary to the user, but users can developtheir own methods of using the workspaces to organize how they use their computers. Forexample, if you usually work on more than one project at a time or throughout the day,you can use a workspace for each project you are working on. When you are working onone project, you can concentrate on the applications for it without having to close all thewindows for a different project. When you are ready to return to a different project, justswitch workspaces. The necessary applications for the different project are open on adifferent workspace waiting for you to return to them. Or, you can sort applicationwindows by type. You can use one workspace for your online communications by havingit contain your email and instant messenger clients. You can reserve one workspace foryour office communication needs such as word processing or spreadsheet programs. Yetanother workspace can be used only for web browsing.As an administrator, if you are monitoring several systems at the same time, you can haveall the monitoring applications for each system on a separate workspace and switch backand forth between them. That way, when you are looking at the monitoring tools, youdon’t have to constantly think about which system you are analyzing.By default, the desktop is configured to have four workspaces, but this can be customizedby right-clicking on the workspace switcher (the squares) and selecting Preferences. Asshown in Figure 4.1, you can even label the workspaces. To switch between workspaces,click on the square that represents it on the bottom panel.