Kubuntu 11.04 Tutorials - Part 3 - Basic applications

Hello, and welcome to another of my Kubuntu 11.04 (codename: Natty Narwhal) tutorials. In this tutorial, I'll be showing you some of the basic programs that come with Kubuntu. To start, go to the K menu in the bottom-left corner of the screen. From this menu, you can access your applications and documents, just like the Start menu in Windows, the dash in Unity or the menus in GNOME. It's arranged into five categories. "Favourites" is the default category. It contains links to anything you wish. When you install Kubuntu, it contains some of the most popular pre-installed applications. Any menu item may be added to Favourites using its right-click menu. For example, I can add Popup Notes by right-clicking its icon and clicking "Add to Favorites". The second category is "Applications". It contains an orderly tree of the applications installed on your computer. Kubuntu already comes fully equipped for the needs of most computer users, with a web browser called rekonq [Internet -> Web Browser], an office suite called LibreOffice, which is based on the OpenOffice.org project by Sun [Office -> LibreOffice], a music library called Amarok [Multimedia -> Audio Player], a video player [Multimedia -> Video Player], and of course a file manager [System -> File Manager]. Next is the "Computer" category, which contains important items for managing your computer, including a link to the System Settings, software management, and several commonly used locations on your computer. After this is the "Recently Used" category. Over time, it will with files and applications. You can use this category for quick access to files you use often. Finally, we have the Leave menu, which is filled with many ways to end your desktop session. It is also possible to leave using keyboard shortcuts. For example, pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete will bring up a window which contains most of the options from this menu. You can also lock your computer by pressing Ctrl-Alt-L, though you can modify this in the System Settings. Let me lock my computer now... If I had a screensaver enabled, you would be seeing that now. Moving my mouse brings up a password prompt, though this window also allows me to start a new session as the same or a different user. By typing my password, I can return to my desktop, which will appear precisely as I left it. I would suggest learning all about the keyboard shortcuts available in Kubuntu, as they can make it much faster to perform common tasks on your computer. Probably the most used application today is the web browser. And, just like every other popular computing topic, there are many options. Kubuntu comes with a web browser called rekonq. It has a simple interface, but comes fully equipped with the WebKit rendering engine and, if you chose to install third-party programs when you installed Kubuntu, Flash. If you did not install third-party programs, opening rekonq will bring up a notification in your system tray alerting you that you don't have Flash. It will lead you through the steps required to install Flash at that point. Of course, you're welcome to install another browser if you'd like. It's easy to install another web browser using the Software Management tool. Another crucial part of computing today is E-mail. While of course you're welcome to use Gmail or another webmail client while you use Kubuntu, Kontact is a fully-featured personal information management suite, which handles e-mail, contacts, your calendar, news feeds, and much much more. If you're used to using Evolution, Apple Mail, Outlook or Thunderbird, you'll probably find yourself right at home in Kontact very quickly. But what's a computing session without a little bit of music? To this end, Kubuntu comes with a program that I feel beats the competition on any platform - Amarok. Opening Amarok for the first time, we're going to be greeted with a popup telling us that extra features are available. Had we not chosen to install Flash when we installed Kubuntu, we would have got a similar popup when we opened rekonq, allowing us to install Flash. It's very simple to install these extra features. We just click the downloading globe, press "Install Selected", type our passwords, and the installation will occur for us. The extra functionality we're installing here will allow us to play music and videos encoded in formats that for legal or technical reasons don't get installed by default. I'll let this installer run in the background. Once it finishes, I'll simply need to quit and re-open Amarok and I'll have all of the additional functionality the packages added. In the mean time, I'd like to speak to you about a program that often gets forgotten is our file manager. And what a treat Kubuntu's file manager is. It brings the best features of file managers seen elsewhere. Of course, it's easy to get started, and it works just like one would expect of a file manager. Just like Mac users have iChat, so too do Kubuntu users have a wonderful built-in instant messaging program. It's called Kopete, and it is a truly remarkable program. Kopete will let you chat with others using over a dozen protocols. Got a friend who uses Windows Messenger? Connect your account here. AOL users? Not a problem - you can connect to AIM right here. More a fan of Google? Google Talk is over here. It even has options for people who need to communicate in formulas, or when you want to have a private conversation. You're probably thinking "but what about when I need to work?" Well, Kubuntu comes with one of the world's most powerful office suites - LibreOffice. You can do your word processing in it, or build a spreadsheet, or make a beautiful presentation. It even comes with a host of templates, allowing you give your presentation a very human look. But I almost forgot about the most important program on your computer. A program that, in my experience, will never lose its usefulness. The help center. Every time I install an application with which I'm unfamiliar, I read its manual. In it, I find all sorts of awesome features that I would never have otherwise discovered. I would highly recommend becoming familar with the KDE Help Center, as it's often a much quicker way to answer your questions than finding somebody else to ask. Although, if you do need to ask someone, one of the best places to go is to the #kubuntu channel on the Ubuntu IRC server. You can connect to it through Quassel. Following the Quassel first run wizard in Kubuntu will set you up to join the #kubuntu channel, which in turn will let you ask questions of members of the Kubuntu community - and who knows? You might be able to answer questions somebody else asks. I hope this has been an informative tutorial. My next tutorial will discuss installing applications.