Newbie-Friendly Post-Installation Ubuntu Usability Setup Guide - Page 2

4. Programs

So, now you've got a nice, working, updated system. Time to try it out! Okay, let's open up the Word Processor. Here's where it's located at:

After it loads, it should look something like this:

Okay, great. Now, let's open up the Presentation software. Here's where it's at:

Oh, my. What's this? A wizard?!?! Well, that's not how I like to make presentations, so I'll just bypass it by clicking the create button:

There. That looks better:

Okay, now comes a program that is an extremely useful tool. Whenever someone helps you troubleshoot a problem that you might have, chances are they will have you enter a "command" into something called the Terminal. The Terminal also has other names, such as the Command Line, TTY, and Console. (There are differences between the technical definitions of these terms, but for the most part, you shouldn't have to worry about it.) Here's where it is located at:

Yours might look a little different the first time you load it, but any time after that, chances are it will look a lot like this:

Now, there are a couple of important differences between how yours looks and how mine looks. They are the username and hostname, both of which you chose during installation. Let's type in a command, and then press enter. I decided to use sudo lspci for this example:

Notice how it asks for a sudo password - this is the same password you've been using, the one that goes with your username. As you type it, there is no real indication that it is getting your keystrokes - the cursor just stays in one spot and keeps flashing. That's okay. Once you finish typing in the password, press the [Enter] key again. Whenever we run a command that starts with sudo, we are running it as the system administrator. The system administrator's username will always be root. The command lspci is used to all of the PCI devices that are in the computer. It shows the output in the Terminal, like this:

Okay, now let's open our web browser, Firefox. It is easy to get to - notice the icon on the top bar:

You should see a startup page load in a new window. Here's mine:

Keep in mind, yours could be different. Notice the bar in the upper-right corner of the window - it is a Google search box. Go ahead and type in "crazy" (without quotes), and then press enter:

After a few seconds, provided you have a fast Internet connection, you should see the Google search results for the word "crazy". My results are shown here:

Now, time for a cool feature that was included in Ubuntu before Vista ever even came out, and I still don't think it is included in Windows by default: Drag and drop to move the window placeholders on the bottom bar. I'm going to move the Firefox placeholder over to the left side. Here:

Oh, crap! What happened!?!? Oh, I see - I hit the wrong button. Hey, that's another cool feature that Ubuntu had first, and Windows may still not include by default: Virtual Desktops. Here, look in the lower-right corner, just to the left of the Trash can: