When a PC is turned on, this little program loads the operating system from hard drive into the memory and starts it.

See also: Command Line

'Command Line' refers to the entering of commands directly in a text mode using a terminal. For new users a graphical environment is easier to use but the command line is very powerful and definitely worth learning how to use as you become more experienced. For KDE the Terminal program used is called Konsole and can be found under 'Terminals' in the main menu. You can see what the command line looks like here.

Loosely defined, a desktop environment is the graphical interface that you see when you interact with your computer. It may include various graphical elements such as windows, Menus, Icons, etc.
More strictly defined, a desktop environment includes additional elements in addition to those provided by a window manager such as a file browser, 'open file' and 'print' dialogs. Some of the larger environments have large selections of programs that are made to to have a consistent look and feel with the environment itself.

On Microsoft Windows, you have no choices when it comes to the desktop environment you get to use -you take what your given. With Linux however, there are many desktop environments to choose from and you are free to choose the one that best fits your needs and personal tastes. You can even choose not to use a desktop environment at all and work completely in a text environment. The default desktop environment for PCLinuxOS is called KDE.∞ Fluxbox∞, a small, fast desktop environment is also included on the Live CD. There are other environments available in the PCLinuxOS repository such as Gnome∞, Xfce∞, andIce WM∞. By stricter definition, some of these are only window managers. Feel free to try different Environments, That's part of the fun. You can see examples of the Desktop Environments we currently have available here.

You can learn more about the many Graphical User Interfaces (Desktop Environments and Window Managers) available for linux here∞.
see also: Window Manager, GUI

A file folder

The file system (a file structure) defines how directories and files are organized on your system. It won't take you long to discover that the file system used by Linux and the file system used by Windows are quite different. More information about the file system used by PCLinuxOS and its structure can be found here.

A graphical userface allows you to interact with your computer using graphical elements such as windows, icons, and menus and a pointer (arrows etc.). A GUI makes a computer easier to use for beginners then the Command Line, because you don't need to know or remember any commands to do things. A Desktop environment or a window manager provide the GUI. On PCLinuxOS the default GUI is the KDE desktop environment. You can see some examples of GUI's available here.
A comprehensive listing of GUIs available to Linux can be found here∞.

A LiveCD is a CD that contains an entire operating system, that runs purely off of the cd, without modifying the hard drive.

Insert an external file system or device (like another hard drive) into your file system.

This is the point in your file structure where the content of a different file system is inserted (mounted). If for example you were to mount a hard drive labled hdb1 (hard drive B 1) in your /mnt directory you could assign the hard drive a 'mount point' of /mnt/hdb1 and then you could access the files on this drive by opening the /mnt/hdb1 directory which would contain the contents of the drive.

A mount point can be given any name you want since you are just defining the directory where you want to access the information. you could for example give our example drive hdb1 the mount point of /mnt/myfiles which means you would find the contents of the drive in the directory named /mnt/myfiles. A mount point can be put anywhere in your file structure that you choose to put it.

A Hard drive can be divided up into sections which are treated as virtual hard drives by the operating system. These sections are called Partitions. In Linux Hard drives are named hda (Hard Drive A), Hdb, etc. The partitions on each drive are numbered. hda1 refers to the first partition on the hard drive labled hda.

This is where all the software packages for PCLinuxOS are kept and maintained. The repositories are accessed over the Internet, usually using a software installation program like Synaptic. Mirrors of the PCLinuxOS repository can be found on several different servers. Choose the one that works the best for you.

The name of the directory in the file system that contains all other directories is called the root directory and is indicated with the / symbol. This symbol is also used to show directories and is used next to a directory's name to indicate that it is a directory. A file named /home/somefile.txt refers to a file named "somefile.txt" in the "home/" directory which is in the "/" (root) directory of the file system.

There is a directory in the / (root) directory that is labled "root", This is spelled out to differentiate it from "/". This directory is the home directory for the root user account and is kept separate from the regular users home accounts found in the /home directory.

"The Root User" or "Root" is the title given to the system administrator. The root user has all permissions and is often called the "Superuser". If you are the person who installed PCLinuxOS onto your computer then you are also likely the root user. It is important to pick a good secure password for the root user account because if someone were able to guess it they would have complete access and permissions to all users and complete control of your system.

For your own personal 'every day' use you should set up and use an account for yourself as a regular user. The root user account should only be used when you need to "administer" your system. This would include things like installing software, adding users, Mounting drives, and changing system wide settings.

A program that allows you to use the command line to enter commands using plain text. There are many to choose from and you can try out different terminals to find the one you are most comfortable with. PCLinuxOS uses Konsole by default which is the terminal used by KDE. Xterm is also included on the live CD, and is used by default in Fluxbox.

A Wiki is a Method of collaboration that allows anyone to contribute to or edit the contents of an online document. This New User Guide is a Wiki. Usually, in order to contribute or make changes to a wiki, you must be registered. This helps prevent abuse and vandalism. Once you are registered you may add or edit pages. As a new user, we invite you to contribute to this wiki as you discover and overcome various issues that new users might run into.

A program that manages the appearance of windows, defines how the windows work and allows them to be manipulated. A window manager usually provides some menu desktop menu functionality and a pointer (arrow, etc.) A window manager may also include things such as docks and applets as well. You can see some examples of available Window Managers here.
To learn more about the window managers available for Linux, you can go here∞.
see also: GUI, Desktop Environment