• Regular—The full-featured CDE session.
• FVWM-95-2—The fvwm window manager with the familiar Linux 95 style menu.
• FVWM—A minimally configured fvwm environment.
• Fail-safe—A single X terminal, with no window manager. This session is designed for addressing configuration problems.

These options, as well as dtlogin's appearance, can be extensively modified. See the dtlogin(1X) manual page and the CDE documentation for details and examples.

In addition to the Fail-safe session, the Linux virtual terminal feature is still available. In order to change from the CDE to a virtual console, press Ctrl+Alt and F1+F6. In order to return, press Alt+F7.

When a regular session is started from the dtlogin screen, the CDE session manager (Xsession) takes over. Xsession executes the programs necessary to start the required desktop session, depending on the workstation and the user's individual configuration options. By modifying the scripts and configuration files processed by Xsession, a user or system administrator can customize CDE's appearance and specify what applications start at login and are available for use during the session. I will cover these options later in the chapter in the section "Customizing Your Session."

After the session is started, the user interacts with the Front Panel, Workspace Manager, Application Manager, and other CDE tools.

The Desktop Environment

When the desktop is finished loading, the first thing a new CDE user probably notices is the Front Panel, which is shown in Figure 6.1. Whereas the Motif and Open Look window managers offer only menus and the FVWM offers menus and simple icons, CDE provides a Front Panel with pop-up and breakaway icon panels, a virtual screen manager, a trash bin similar to that of the Macintosh, and predefined buttons for operations such as logging out, locking the screen, reading mail, and launching several desktop tools.

After a close inspection of the Front Panel, a new user sees that the CDE offers a lot more than a program launch pad because it supplies its own set of desktop applications and context- sensitive help.

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On the far left side of the default panel, the CDE supplies an analog clock, which displays the system time, and a calendar, which has an icon that displays the current date. The calendar is actually a sophisticated scheduling application that provides an appointment manager capable of notifying the user of appointments via sound, blinking video, pop-up windows, and e-mail. It also provides a To Do list manager and a wide variety of calendar views that should satisfy most users. But the real power of the desktop Calendar Manager lies in its network options. By taking advantage of the desktop's networking capabilities, it allows users to share their schedules with any other user of the CDE, regardless of whether they are using the same workstation and without having to copy or share any files. These sharing capabilities are completely configured from the application: No additional administrative work is required.

The next icon on the Front Panel is for the File Manager. This should look familiar to any Macintosh, Windows 95, or xfm user. Files can be viewed as icons or names and moved, copied, or deleted with the mouse. As with other file managers, files are moved when they are dragged with the mouse, copied when they are dragged with Shift or Ctrl pressed, and deleted when they are dragged to the Trash icon, which is located in the Control Panel. (All desktop applications share this Trash icon.)

The CDE also supports file associations, much like the Macintosh and Windows operating systems. These associations are governed by desktop actions, which are defined through the Application Manager and can be used in the File Manager. (I'll cover actions in more detail later in the chapter in the section "Customizing Your Session.") These actions enable a user to double-click a file and run the proper application, depending on how that type of file has been defined. The default set of actions provided with the CDE is already very powerful. For example, when a tar archive is double-clicked, a window pops up with a table of contents for the archive (a right-click provides an option to actually extract the contents), compressed files are decompressed, and text files are already associated with the desktop GUI editor (but can be reassociated with your favorite editor, such as vi or xemacs).

The next two icons launch the Text Editor and the Mailer, which are two more desktop tools supplied with the CDE. The Text Editor resembles most GUI text editors, with the addition of the CDE's ever-present help system and some nice little extras like word wrap and an integrated spell-checker. The Mailer uses the same spell-checker and offers a lot of other features, such as the ability to create mail templates and excellent mail folder features.

Above the editor icon is a small arrow that produces a subpanel when clicked (see Figure 6.2). Subpanels are one of the more advanced features of the CDE and also provide an easy method for users to customize their environment. Subpanels can be "torn off" and placed anywhere on the desktop, effectively extending the Front Panel and eliminating the need for the root menu. I'll cover how subpanels can be created in the "Customizing Your Session" section of this chapter.

The subpanel located over the Text Editor has an icon for starting a Desktop Terminal (dtterm). It is a terminal that very closely resembles an Xterm but has menus for operations such as changing the font size and cutting and pasting text, making it easier for new users to perform otherwise advanced operations at the shell prompt.

In the middle of the Front Panel, you see the Graphical Workspace Manager (GWM) and some smaller icons that are installed by default. The lock control locks the screen, the exit control logs you out, the green light indicates when the CDE is busy saving a configuration or launching a new application, and the fourth control brings up a separate Workspace Manager window.

The Workspace Manager has a virtual screen manager provided by TriTeal. TriTeal's version of the CDE has some features above and beyond those offered by the CDE. Although the CDE-specified desktop has buttons corresponding to virtual screens (the number of virtual screens defaults to four but can be easily altered; see the "Customizing Your Session" section), the Workspace Manager presents a graphical representation of each screen and its contents and allows windows to be manipulated from within the screen manager.

Immediately to the right of the screen manager is the Printer Control, where you can view printers and manage documents. You can also drag documents to the Printer Control to be processed if the appropriate action has been configured for the application that created it.

The next three icons represent the heart of the CDE: the Style Manager, covered in the section "Customizing Your Session"; the Application Manager, also covered in "Customizing Your Session"; and the Help Viewer, explained in detail in "The Help Viewer."