Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE Manual page 19

Chapter 1. Getting Started
Command: An instruction given to the computer, most often with the keyboard or mouse.
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Command line: The space at the shell prompt where commands are typed.
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Graphical Desktop: The most visible area of a GUI. The desktop is where your user Home and
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Start Here icons are located. You can customize your desktop to have special backgrounds, colors,
and pictures to add a personal touch.
Graphical User Interface (GUI): A general term for interactive windows, icons, menus, and panels
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which allow a user to initiate actions such as starting applications and opening files using a mouse
and keyboard.
Icons are small images representing an application, folder, shortcut or system resource (such as a
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diskette drive). Launcher icons usually refer to application shortcuts.
Man page and Info page: Man (short for manual) and Info pages give detailed information about
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a command or file (man pages tend to be brief and provide less explanation than Info pages). For
example, to read the man page for the
for the info page). To close man or Info pages, press [q].
su
Panel: A desktop toolbar, usually located across the bottom of your desktop (such as Figure 1-8).
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The panel contains the Main Menu button and shortcut icons to start commonly used programs.
Panels can also be customized to suit your needs.
Figure 1-8. The Desktop Panel
Root: Root is an administrative user account created during installation and has complete access to
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the system. You must be logged in as root to accomplish certain system administration tasks, such
as changing administrative passwords and running system configuration tools. User accounts are
created so that typical user tasks can be done without using the root account, which can reduce the
chance of damaging your Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation or applications permanently.
RPM: RPM stands for RPM Package Manager and is how Red Hat builds and delivers its software
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files. An RPM is a software package file you can install on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux computer.
Shell prompt: A command line interface between the user and the operating system (Figure 1-9).
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The shell interprets commands entered by the user and passes them on to the operating system.
command, type
su man su
at a shell prompt (or type
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info