This is the first part of an easy user manual series of Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system version 8.0 "Flidas". This manual is intended for you beginners and first-timers to operate Trisquel easily everyday. This whole series is practice oriented, with less theories and terms, more practical for daily use. This first part is basic orientation of Trisquel, you will learn the icons and places on Trisquel operating system. You will learn what applications already installed and their purposes, and important places you need everyday (i.e. where your Home folder is, where your partitions are, where your Control Panel is). Enjoy!
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Follow this series on Trisquel Flidas Guide category in this blog.
Icons
This is a table of applications and their purposes on Trisquel 8. Let the first time you meet Trisquel be a meeting with its icons.
| Icon | Name | Purpose |
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Trisquel | Your operating system logo |
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Abrowser | Web browser; surf the internet |
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LibreOffice Writer | Word processor, replacement to MS Word |
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LibreOffice Calc |
Spreadsheet, replacement to MS Excel |
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LibreOffice Impress |
Presentation, replacement to MS PowerPoint |
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Folder |
Access your folders & files; to open file manager |
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GIMP | Image editor, replacement to Adobe Photoshop |
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Atril |
PDF reader |
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Viewnior | Image viewer |
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Add/Remove Applications | Search, install, remove applications |
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Synaptic | Advanced version of add/remove applications |
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System Monitor | CPU, RAM, and network usage viewer; similar to Task Manager on Windows |
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Rhythmbox | Audio player |
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VLC Media Player | Video player |
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Engrampa | File compression & extraction tool; similar to WinRAR on Windows |
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Pidgin | Chatting & online messaging for any service (YM!, IRC, XMPP, Gtalk, etc.) |
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Terminal | Command line tool |
That table shows frequently used programs but not all. Here's more programs & their purposes on short list:
- Icedove: email client, replacement to Outlook
- Electrum: BitCoin wallet program (BitCoin is a new currency)
- Liferea: news reader, RSS feed reader
- MATE Disk Usage Analyzer: disk capacity examiner, similar to Xinorbis on Windows
- MATE Dictionary: online dictionary program
- Transmission: BitTorrent download manager
- Galculator: calculator
- Pluma: text editor, replacement to Notepad
- GDebi: program to install a .deb formatted software package (easy to use for beginner)
- Brasero: CD burning program, replacement to Nero Burning ROM
Desktop
Here's a normal Trisquel desktop appearance. It consists of a wallpaper (background) + taskbar panel (bottom) + icons on desktop area + two windows showing. See also, the control-buttons set (close-maximize-minimize) is located on top-right of every window. With only one glance, you will find Trisquel desktop is very familiar because it looks similar to Windows XP. This is the place where you work, your Trisquel.
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| This is the desktop of Trisquel |
Menu
Your menu is the button on left end of taskbar panel. The menu is cascading, similar to Windows XP's menu. For example, you find "LibreOffice Base" under Office section, and you find "Electrum Bitcoin Wallet" under Internet section.
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| Trisquel menu; left: Internet section, right: Office section |
Your Home Folder
It is located in the folder icon with home logo:
Suppose your username is rabbit then your home folder is /home/rabbit and the contents inside rabbit folder are user's seven folders which are Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Public, Templates, Music, and Video. This folder of /home/rabbit is your Home Directory on Trisquel system. This is the place where you save your files and make new folders.
 |
| This is Caja, your file manager |
Your Web Browser
Find web browser from menu > Internet > Abrowser.
See earth icon on panel? See Abrowser on menu? That is your web browser. However, Abrowser is a modified version of Mozilla Firefox, compatible with Firefox addons, but with more privacy & security.
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| Abrowser showing getgnulinux.org website |
Your Partitions
Find file manager from menu > Accessories > Caja.
You access your drive partitions and USB flash disks on the same place as your home folder, on Caja File Manager, particularly on left panel under the Devices section.
 |
| Partitions & USB flash drives |
Your Control Panel
Find it from menu > System > Control Center.
It is named Control Center on Trisquel. From this Control Center you can adapt your system to suit your needs, starting from add/remove programs to set keyboard & mouse.
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| This is your Control Center |
to be continued...
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.