Linux Dummies 9th

Chapter 4: Examining the GNOME Desktop
71
3. When you’re finished making changes, click Close.
The dialog box closes. (Note that in this dialog box, you can also change
whether the screensaver turns on, how long it takes to turn on, and
which screensaver to use.)
The panels
A pair of panels lives on your GNOME desktop — one along the top and one
along the bottom. Because these bars are neatly divided into sections, take
a look at what’s in each section from left to right, starting with the top panel.
On the far left side of the top panel are the three menus discussed in “The
menus” section, earlier in this chapter.
There are three different areas to the panels: the quick-launch icons, the
applets, and the bottom panel.
Quick-launch icons
After the menu section of the top panel, you run into a group of quick-launch
icons (refer to Figure 4-1) that launch specific applications automatically.
You can reach all these items through the menus, but they’re on the panel to
make them easy to find. In both Fedora and Ubuntu, these icons are
✓ Firefox: The planet-with-a-fox icon opens the Firefox Web browser. (See
Chapter 9 for more.)
✓ Evolution: Just to the right of the Web-browser button; launches an
e-mail and calendar program. (See Chapter 10 for more.)
Ubuntu also includes a Help icon to provide easy access to the Ubuntu Help
manual.
Applet area
Next to the quick-launch icons is a large blank space where you can add new
icons. To the right of the blank space is the applet area of the top panel.
GNOME applets are small programs that you access directly from the panel.
They’re powerful in that applets interact with the panel, often showing information
directly on the panel, which saves you from having to launch a huge
window to see the information.
Most Linux distributions that use the GNOME desktop place several applets
on the top panel by default. In Fedora, here’s what you find from left to right —
though your particular installation may have extra options displayed: