In contrast to most proprietary operating systems, Fedora 10 has several desktop environments or desktops that are used to display and launch available applications and manage the overall appearance of the screen. The desktop environment is sometimes referred to as the Graphical User Interface, or GUI.
The two major desktops included with Fedora 10 are:
- GNOME, which focuses on simplicity
- KDE, which includes a large collection of applications and customization features
Fedora's extensive repository of software offers other desktops as well, such as XFCE (low hardware requirement desktop), Fluxbox (minimalist desktop), Sugar (the desktop environment for the OLPC XO), and LXDE. To learn how to browse and install software from the repository, refer to Managing Software.
Applications included with a particular desktop environment run in other environments, with minor exceptions. For instance, the OpenOffice.org office suite runs on all three major desktop environments.
Some applications are created specifically for a particular desktop environment. For example, each major desktop has a preferred text editor. GNOME uses Gedit and KDE supplies Kedit, but you can install and use your favorite program from one environment in the other.
Fedora provides a wide choice of applications to browse the World Wide Web, create documents, and display and edit photos. This guide describes the most commonly installed applications on the most common desktop environments, as well as the useful alternatives.
| Previous Page - Introduction | Table of Contents | Next Page - Logging in |