The more popular desktop environment for the Linux operating system is GNOME or KDE. The early versions of Ubuntu used the GNOME desktop environment. Starting from version 11.04, Ubuntu abandoned the GNOME desktop environment and used Unity as the default desktop environment. From version 17.10, it began to change back to GNOME interface. Ubuntu 18.04LTS desktop version uses GNOME 3 as the default desktop environment. Ubuntu's desktop environment is very good, which is an important reason why it can become an excellent Linux desktop system. To use Ubuntu, you must first be familiar with its desktop environment, and then you can customize the desktop according to your needs.
1. Initial interface
When explaining the login operation, the user interface has already been involved. Ubuntu uses GNOME 3 to completely redraw the user interface. The interface is very simple. When you log in for the first time, you only see an empty desktop and the top panel. The top panel bar provides operations for Windows and Applications\Calendar and Agenda, as well as system properties such as Sound, Network Connections, and Power . The status menu allows you to adjust volume or screen brightness, edit WiFi connection details, check battery status, log out or switch users, shut down your computer, and more.
2. Basic operation of the desktop environment
To be familiar with the basic operation of the Ubuntu desktop environment, you must first understand the activity overview view (Activity overview).
1. Use the activity overview view
The default is normal view, click the "Activities" button in the upper left corner of the screen or press the Super key to switch back and forth between normal view and activity overview view . The Super key refers to the windows (windows) key . As shown, the activity overview is a full-screen mode that provides multiple ways to switch from one activity to another. It displays previews of all open windows, as well as icons for favorite and running applications. In addition, he also integrated search and browse functions .
On the left side of the view, you can see the Dash floating panel (Dash: Dashboard, or Dock bar, docking panel) . He is a Favorites, where the most commonly used programs and currently running programs are placed . Click one of the icons to open the corresponding program. If the program is already running, it will be highlighted . Clicking the icon displays the most recently used windows. You can also drag the icon from the Dash floating panel to the view, or drag it to any workspace on the right.
When switching to the active overview view, the window overview view is displayed on the desktop, showing real-time thumbnails of all windows in the current workspace, one of which is the active window . Each window represents a running GUI application. The upper part has a search box that can be used to find applications, settings, and files in the home directory.
The workspace selector is located to the right of the activity overview view and can be used to switch to a different workspace (ie a different desktop) .
2. Start the application
There are many ways to start and run GUI applications, listed below.
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Click the "Nine Squares" at the bottom of the Dash floating panel, and the application list will be displayed .
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Enter the name of the program directly after opening the activity overview view, the system will automatically search for the application, and click the icon to run it.
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Execute commands in a terminal window to run graphical applications.
3. Add the application to the Dash panel
Enter the activity overview view, click the "Nine Squares" button at the bottom of the Dash panel, right-click the application to be added, and select the "Add to Favorites" command from the shortcut menu . To remove an application from the Dash panel, right-click on the application and select the "Remove from Favorites" command.
4. Window operation
When running a graphical interface application in Ubuntu, the corresponding window will be opened, as shown in the figure below, the upper right corner of the title bar of the application window usually provides window close, window minimization and window maximization buttons. A general window has a menu, and the default menu is located in the menu bar on the left side of the top panel (a drop-down menu needs to pop up). General windows can also be resized by dragging the edges, and multiple windows can be switched with Alt + Tab keys.
5. Use the workspace
You can use workspaces to organize applications together, and placing programs in different workspaces is an effective way to organize and categorize windows.
Switching between workspaces can be done with the mouse or the keyboard. Click the "Activities" button in the upper left corner of the screen or press the super key to enter the activity overview view, and the workspace selector is displayed on the right side of the screen, click the workspace you want to enter, or press Page Up or Page Down to turn the page key to toggle up and down in the workspace selector.
After entering the activity overview view, you can directly use the mouse to drag the application window to a workspace on the right.
3. Commonly used graphical interface applications
1. File manager
Click the "File" button to open the interface as shown in the figure below, which is similar to Windows Explorer and is used to access local files and folders as well as network resources. Expand "Other Locations" and select "On This Machine" to view all resources on the host, or select "Network" to browse network resources.
2. FireFox browser
Linux has always used Mozilla FireFox as the default web browser, and Ubuntu is no exception.
3. Use the gedit text editor
Ubuntu provides a graphical text editor gedit to view and edit plain text files. Plain text files are plain text files that contain formatted text with no font or style applied, such as system logs and configuration files.
Browse or find Text Editor or gedit from the list of applications, or run the gedit command in a terminal emulation window command to open the editor. The gedit interface is shown in the figure below.
Due to the limitation of user rights, you cannot directly edit and save configuration files and other files located outside your personal home directory. In this case, you should consider using the sudo command and execute the sudo gedit command in the command line of the terminal emulation window.
4. Ubuntu Software Center
Open the Ubuntu Software Center, which is similar to the Apple Store. Provide software packages for users to search, query, install and uninstall as needed.
In order to better use the software center in China, we should change it to a domestic mirror source, which we will give in the next section, which is very important.
5. Software and updates
Locate the Software & Update program from the list of applications and run it.
By default, the interface as shown in the figure below appears. View and set the software source in the "Ubuntu Software" tab, and select the required software source from the "Download from" drop-down menu (the server in China is selected by default). If you select "Other Sites", a dialog box as shown in the figure below will open, select a download server from the list as the software source. What we choose here is the software mirror source of the University of Science and Technology of China (mirrors.ustc.edu.cn). Then click "choose server", and then click "close". After a while, we switched to the domestic mirror source.
In addition to setting software sources, an important function of the Software and Update program is to update software. Switch to the "Updates" tab, you can set the system update options, as shown below. Automatic update is allowed by default. If there is an update, it will automatically remind the available system upgrade and open the software updater automatically.
4. Desktop Personalization Settings
Find and run the Settings program from the list of applications to perform various system setup tasks. Only some commonly used settings are introduced here.
1. Network settings
Click Wi-Fi, select your own network, enter the password, and connect. After connecting, you can also change the options such as automatic connection.
2. Display Settings
From the " Settings " application, click the "Device" button to open the corresponding interface, as shown in the figure below, the first column is to set the "Display" setting interface, select the desired resolution from the "Resolution" drop-down list, and then click Click the "Apply" button.
3. Shortcut key settings
From the " Settings " application, click the "Device" button to open the corresponding interface, as shown in the figure below, the second column is to set the "Keyboard" setting interface, as shown in the figure below, you can view the various shortcut keys set by the system default, you can Edit or modify as necessary.
Reposted from: 1.3 Familiar with the Ubuntu desktop environment_ubuntu desktop environment_DPRobot's Blog-CSDN Blog