Introductory Terms - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 4 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE Manual

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Now that your system is configured, you are ready to log in and start using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Press Forward to exit the Setup Agent.

1.2. Introductory Terms

When you learn about a new operating system, you should also learn new terminology. This section
defines a few basic terms you should learn. You will see these terms often throughout all Red Hat
Enterprise Linux documentation including the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Step By Step Guide:
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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Computer 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, located across the top and bottom of your desktop (such as Figure 1-12).
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The panel contains the Applications menu and shortcut icons to start commonly used programs.
Panels can also be customized to suit your needs.
Root: Root is an administrative user account created during installation that has complete access
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to the system.(Root is also known as the superuser.) You must be logged in as root to accomplish
certain system administration tasks, such as changing administrative passwords and running sys-
tem configuration tools. User accounts are created so that typical user tasks can be done without
Figure 1-11. Finish Setup
command, type
su
Figure 1-12. The Desktop Panel
Chapter 1. Getting Started
at a shell prompt (or type
man su info