| Resize window using cursor keys | Alt-F8 | |
| Minimize | Alt-F9 | |
| Maximize | Alt-F10 |
2.1.1.4. Fast pasting
KDE, GNOME, and other GUIs based on the X Window System have standard cut-and-paste features. Most applications use Ctrl-X for cut, Ctrl-C for copy, and Ctrl-V for paste, which is compatible with the keyboard shortcuts on other platforms.
But the X Window System also has a faster way of pasting: select the text (or graphic) you want to duplicate by highlighting it, then click the middle mouse button at the point you wish to paste. For example, to fast-paste a web address from Firefox into an email being composed in Evolution, you can highlight the text in Firefox (place the mouse cursor at the start of the text, press the left mouse button, drag the cursor over the text, and release the button), then move to the Evolution window and press the middle mouse button to paste that text.
Taking this one step further, all of the Fedora web browsers allow you to highlight a web address in any application's window, then middle-click on a blank spot in the browser window to go directly to that page (with Firefox, you can also search using this technique, by highlighting a search term instead of an addressas long as there's no period in your search term).
The clipboard used for cut/copy-and-paste operations is not used for fast pasting; instead, the
2.1.1.5. Logging out
To log out of the desktop, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete. A confirmation dialog will appear, and then you will be logged out. You can also select the Log Out option from the application menu (System menu in GNOME).
2.1.2. How Does It Work?
The Fedora GUI is built in seven layers plus some toolkits or user-interface libraries, as shown in Figure 2 -5 .
Figure 2-5. Layers in the Fedora GUI
This architecture fits in well with the Unix/Linux philosophy of writing programs that each do one task and do it well. The layers can be mixed and matched to serve various needs; for example, in the standard Fedora configuration, selecting a GNOME or KDE session changes the software used for the Session Manager, Window Manager, and Desktop Environment layers, even though the Display Manager and Application Clients remain the same. Likewise, if the system is configured for character-mode login, but the user starts the GUI after she has logged in, then the Display Manager layer is not used at all.
The X server manages all of the display hardware and is the only program that directly accesses the hardware. Client programswhich include any program that needs to communicate with the user, including the Display Manager, Session Manager, Window Manager, Desktop Environment, and Application Clientscommunicate with the X server using the X protocol over a network connection. That means that any application that can be used on a local display can also be used on a remote display. This provides powerful flexibility for remote access.
The Toolkits are function libraries used to simplify development of GUI applications. GTK+ is the toolkit used by GNOME, and Qt is used by KDE applications (though not all applications that use these toolkits are full- blown GNOME or KDE applications, because both environments provide additional services).
2.1.3. What About...
2.1.3.1. ...other desktops/GUIs?
Many other desktop/GUI environments are availablefor example, Xfce, a nice but lightweight desktop environment included in the Fedora Extras repository. To install Xfce:
# yum groupinstall XFCE
You'll see an entry for Xfce in the Display Manager's Session menu (shown in Figure 2-1).
See Chapter 5 for more information on using
2.1.4. Where Can I Learn More?
? The GNOME Project: http://gnome.org
? The KDE Project: http://kde.org
? The freedesktop.org project: http://freedesktop.org
? X.org, developers of the X Window System: http://x.org
? Information about many different window managers and desktop environments (both current and old): http://xwinman.org/
