When you start your system, you are usually prompted to enter your username and password. If someone else installed your system, check with your system administrator for your username and password.

After logging in to GNOME for the first time, you see the GNOME desktop, offering the following basic elements:

Desktop Icons:  Access programs and features on your system by double-clicking an icon. Right-click an icon to get additional menus and options. By default, the desktop features several key icons, including your personal Home folder and a trash can for deleted items. Other icons representing devices on your computer, such as CD drives or USB flash disks, may also be present on the desktop, and you can add as many icons on your desktop as you like. If you double-click your Home folder, the Nautilus file manager starts and displays the contents of your home directory.

Bottom Panel:  The desktop includes a panel at the bottom of the screen. This panel contains the Computer menu, the Tomboy Notes applet, a taskbar to display buttons for all currently running applications, and the system tray. You can also add applications and applets to the panel for easy access.

Main Menu:  Click Computer on the left side of the bottom panel to open the main menu. Commonly used applications appear in the main menu along with recently used applications. Click the Documents button to display your recent documents, or click the Places button to display your favorite places (such as your home directory, your desktop, or available network servers). Click More Applications to access additional applications, listed in categories. Use the options on the right to access help, open the Центр управления GNOME, run YaST, install additional software, lock your screen, log out of the desktop, shut down the system, or check the status of your hard drive and network connections.

System Tray:  The right side of the bottom panel shows some smaller icons, including the system clock that displays the current date and time, the Workspace Switcher, the volume control, and icons for several other helper applications.

Taskbar:  By default, all applications running on the current desktop are displayed in the taskbar (the area in the middle of the panel between the Computer button and the system tray). You can access these applications by clicking their names in the taskbar. Right-click the application's name to see options for moving, restoring, or minimizing the window.

Desktop Menu:  Right-click an empty spot on the desktop to display a menu with various options. Click Create Folder to create a new folder on the desktop. Use Create Launcher to create a launcher icon for an application. Provide the name of the application and the command for starting it, then select an icon to represent it. You can also change the desktop background, open a terminal, create a document, and align desktop icons.

Start programs from the Main Menu or from the command line, using a shell or the Run Command. Additionally, you can start programs from the desktop or the panel by left-clicking the program icon once.

3.2.1. Using the Main Menu¶

To run a program in openSUSE, click Computer on the panel to open the main menu screen. If the program you want does not appear in the main menu screen, click More Applications to view a list of all available applications grouped in categories. You can also limit the list to show only applications with a specific name by entering all or part of the name into the Filter field. Click an entry in the list to start the corresponding program.

You can also add an icon to your panel that opens a more traditional version of the main menu. Right-click a blank space on the panel, select Add to Panel, then double-click Traditional Main Menu.

If you already know the name of an application but are not sure how to start it from the main menu, use the Search field in the main menu. Click Computer, type a portion of the application name in the Search field, then press Enter. If the application is installed on your system, the name of the application appears in the Needle search dialog box. Click the name to start the program.

3.2.2. Using the Run Application Dialog¶

Press Alt+F2 to open the Run Application dialog. Type a command, for example, f-spot, and press Enter or click Run to start the application. The command to start the application is often (but not always) the application name written in lowercase.

If you insert a CD or DVD into your drive or plug in a pluggable device (for example, a USB stick or removable hard disk), GNOME opens Nautilus and shows the content of the media.

Easily add, delete, and create shortcut icons on your desktop. You can also change icon properties and the desktop background to suit your needs.

3.4.3. Using the Центр управления GNOME¶

In addition to letting you change individual desktop elements, GNOME lets you extensively personalize your desktop. You can find more settings to adjust the overall appearance and behavior of your desktop in the Центр управления GNOME. There, you can also change fonts, keyboard and mouse configurations, regional and language settings, parameters for your Internet and network usage, and more.

To start the Control Center, click Computer, then click Control Center on the right of the main menu.

If your computer supports a 3D graphics card with Xgl, you can use graphical effects like turning your desktop into a rotating 3D cube, enabling translucent or transparent windows, and zooming in and out of the desktop screen. You can also use other window effects such as shadows, fading, and transformations. If you do not have a 3D graphics card, some effects may be disabled or reduce the performance of your system. If the performance of your system is too low, disable the compositing effect for your current session with Alt+Shift+F12.

To configure the effects on your desktop, proceed as follows:

The desktop environment allows you to organize your programs and tasks on several virtual desktops. If you often run a lot of programs simultaneously, this minimizes the number of windows to arrange on your screen. You might, for example, use one desktop for e-mailing and calendaring and another for word processing and graphics applications.

Use the Nautilus File Manager to create and view folders and documents, run scripts, and create CDs of your data. To open Nautilus, double-click your home directory icon on the desktop. You see the contents of your home directory.

The elements of the Nautilus window include the following:

Menu.  Lets you perform most tasks.

Toolbar.  Lets you quickly navigate among files and folders, and provides access to files and folders.

Location Bar.  Lets you locate files, folders, and URI sites. If you prefer text based location display to the button based one, select Go+Location.

Side Pane.  Lets you navigate or display information about the selected file or folder. Use the drop-down list to customize what is shown in the pane. The list includes ways to view information about files, perform actions on files, attach emblems to files, view a history of recently visited sites, and display your files in the tree system.

View Pane.  Displays folders and files. Use the options on the View menu to increase or decrease the size of content in the view pane and to display items as a list or as icons.

Status Bar.  Displays the number of items in a folder and gives the available free space. When a file is selected, the status bar displays the filename and size.

3.7.2. Using Bookmarks¶

Use the Nautilus bookmarks feature to mark your favorite folders.

1. Open the folder you want to create a bookmark for.

2. Click Bookmarks+Add Bookmark. The bookmark is added to the list, with the folder name as the bookmark name.

3. To select an item from your bookmarks list, click Bookmarks, then click the desired bookmark in the list.

You can also organize your bookmarks list by clicking Bookmarks+Edit Bookmarks and making your selections in the dialog box.

To change the order of your bookmarks, click a bookmark shown in the Edit Bookmarks dialog and drag it to the desired location.

Firefox* is one of the most popular Web browsers. It has all the familiarity of other browsers, plus added features such as security and privacy tools.

To start Firefox, click Computer+Firefox Web Browser.

With features like tabbed browsing, pop-up window blocking, and download and image management, Firefox combines the latest Web technologies. Its easy access to different search engines helps you find the information you need. Enter a URL in the location bar to start browsing.

To open a new empty tab in Firefox, press Ctrl+T or the «+» button next to the last tab . Type a new URL to browse. To open a link in a new tab, click the link with your middle mouse button. Right-click a tab to access more tab options. You can create a new tab, reload one or all existing tabs, or close a single tab or all tabs. You can also change the sequence of the tabs by dragging and dropping them to a new position.

3.8.2. Downloading Files from the Web¶

If you download a file with Firefox, the Firefox download manager starts and saves this file to the folder configured in Firefox Preferences. By default, the Downloads folder in your home directory is the destination for downloaded files. Firefox shows your finished downloads in the Downloads window.

Open the downloaded files directly from the Downloads window or from the destination folder. To clean up the history of downloaded files, click Clean List.

3.8.3. Configuring Preferences¶

To adjust the default download folder or to activate or modify the pop-up blocking feature, click Edit+Preferences.

Here also configure many other settings such as appearance, language, privacy, and tab options. Click the icons and set the options on each page according to your preferences. Click Close to apply the changes.

GNOME allows you to store your passwords and encryption keys in a keyring. This is useful if you want to store passwords for different web sites.

To create a new keyring, proceed as follows:

You can create as many keyrings as you like. For example, you can create one for private and one for business. To store passwords in your keyring, proceed as follows:

For reading and managing your mail and events, openSUSE offers you Evolution™, a groupware program that makes it easy to store, organize, and retrieve your personal information.

Evolution seamlessly combines an e-mail, a calendar, an address book, and a task list in one easy-to-use application. With its extensive support for communications and data interchange standards, Evolution can work with existing corporate networks and applications, including Microsoft* Exchange.

To start Evolution, click Computer+Evolution Mail and Calendar.

The first time you start it, Evolution prompts you with a few questions as it sets up a mail account and helps you import mail from your old mail client. It shows you how many new messages you have and lists upcoming appointments and tasks, as well as the current weather and news from news feeds. The calendar, address book, and mail tools are available in the shortcut bar on the left.

Press Ctrl+N to open a new item for whatever part of Evolution you are working in. In mail, this creates a new message. If you are in the address book, Ctrl+N creates a new contact card, and in the calendar, it creates a new appointment.

For more information on using Evolution, click Help+Contents in any Evolution window.

Empathy is a multiprotocol instant messaging (IM) client. It is compatible with AOL* Instant Messenger (AIM), Google Talk, GroupWise® Messenger, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger, Jabber/XMPP, Yahoo!*, and other networks.

With Empathy, you can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. Empathy also supports many features of the various networks, such as video chat, file transfer, away messages, and typing notification.

To start Empathy, click Computer+More Applications+Internet+Empathy, or press Alt+F2 and enter empathy.

To add an account to Empathy, either use the initial configuration wizard, or select Edit+Accounts. Click Add and select the protocol you want to use, and type your login information in the appropriate fields. Click Log in to activate you IM account. Finally click Close to start chatting with your friends.

Add contacts by clicking Chat+Add Contanct. Select account, identifier and alias information relevant for the new contact and confirm with Add. However, you must be online and connected to the selected messaging service to add a contact to your list.

To start a chat, double-click the desired contact and type your message in the lower part of the chatting window. Press Enter to send the message. The upper part of the window displays the messages you have sent and received.

The LibreOffice office suite offers a complete set of office tools, including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, vector drawing, and database components. Because LibreOffice is available for a number of operating systems, you can use the same data across multiple platforms.

To start LibreOffice, click Computer+LibreOffice Writer. To create a new document, click File+New, then choose the type of document you want to create. To open an existing document, click Open, then select the file you want from the file system.

Documents that need to be shared or printed across platforms are often distributed as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. PDF files can be created using the LibreOffice suite or other applications. The GNOME PDF viewer is called Evince. It can be used to view PDFs and many other document formats, like PostScript, DjVu, DVI, and multi-page TIFFs.

To start Evince, press Alt+F2 and enter evince .

GNOME provides more than one application for finding data on your computer or in the file system.

3.14.1. Using Desktop Search¶

To locate files or programs on your computer, click Computer. Enter a search term in the Search field and press Enter. The results are displayed in the Needle.

You can also start the Needle application by clicking Computer+More Applications+Accessories+Desktop Search.

3.14.2. Using GNOME Do¶

GNOME Do describes itself as an «intelligent launcher that makes performing common tasks on your computer simple and efficient.» It is extensible with plug-ins.

Start it by pressing Super+Space. The Super is normally located on the left and right Windows or Penguin key.

GNOME Do allows you to perform specific actions. For example, if you type b, it displays a starter button for the Banshee, the music player:

To customize GNOME Do to your needs, select the arrow button on the upper-right corner of the window and select Preferences. It gives you a list of plug-ins to search for mails in Evolution, listen to your music, etc.

If your system has a CD or DVD writer, use the Nautilus file manager to burn CDs and DVDs.

You can also use the more advanced burning tool Brasero, or Banshee to burn data and audio CDs.

F-Spot is a management tool for your collection of digital images, tailored for the GNOME desktop. It allows you to assign different tags to your images in order to categorize them, and offers various image editing options. For example, you can remove red-eye, crop, and adjust brightness and colors. F-Spot supports all important image formats, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and several vendor specific RAW formats.

You can import photos from your hard drive, your digital camera, or your iPod. You can also use F-Spot to create photo CDs, generate a Website gallery, or export your photos to your Flickr, 23, Picasa Web, or SmugMug account.

To access F-Spot, click Computer+F-Spot Photo Browser or press Alt+F2 and enter f-spot. The first time you run F-Spot, you must define the location from where you want to import images into your collection. If you already have a collection of images stored on your hard drive, enter the path to the directory and (optionally) include subfolders. F-Spot imports these images into its database.

Thumbnails of your images are displayed in the right part of the window, and detailed information for a selected image is displayed in a sidebar to the left. By default, your photos are displayed in reverse-chronological order, so your newest photos are always at the top. You can sort your photos in chronological order or reverse-alphabetical order by clicking View+Reverse Order.

A menu bar at the top of the window allows you to access the main menus. A toolbar below offers several different functions depicted by a matching icon.

Use Banshee to import CDs, sync your media collection to a digital media player, play music directly from a digital media player, create playlists with songs or videos from your library, create audio and data CDs from subsets of your library, and subscribe to, download, and listen to your favorite podcasts. Banshee also has an Internet Radio plug-in that allows you to listen to audio streams.

To open Banshee, click Computer+Banshee Media Player or press Alt+F2 and enter banshee-1.

When you start Banshee for the first time, you need to import your media to make them available in the library. To do so, select Media+Import Media from the menu. Choose an import source and click Import. After successfully importing your media, you can access them from your library.

To play a song or a movie, simply select it in the library and click the play button. You can also use the buttons in the upper left corner to pause a song or play the next or previous song. Use the loudspeaker button on the right to adjust the volume.

Banshee also has an integrated CD player. When you insert a music CD, your CD title appears in the left panel. Select the title and click the Play button to play your full CD.

To create audio and MP3 CDs, select the songs you want, then click the Edit+Write CD from the menu.

When you are finished using the computer, you can log out and leave the system running, or restart or shut down the computer.

To learn more about GNOME and GNOME applications, refer to http://www.gnome.org/.