There are currently three main desktop environments for Linux / BSD systems:

1. XFCE
2. Gnome
3. KDE

KDE is probably the most developed and easily configurable and flexible of the three, and is the most similar to the Windows environment that most people are used to.

The DesktopBSD Tools such as the Tray mounter, etc. are built for the KDE desktop environment. It is possible to use a different environment, but some of the DesktopBSD customized functions will not be available.

For a more in depth document on the basics of KDE, refer to the wikipedia entry for a historical overview, and also theKDE Quickstart Guide. To learn about the more advanced functionality of KDE, refer to the KDE Userguide.

You can also use the “Help” entry in the main Kmenu, and navigate to the “KDE User Manual” as shown below.

The screenshots below are for DesktopBSD 1.6 RC3

To open the KMenu, click on the red DesktopBSD icon in the bottom left corner of the desktop.

The KMenu is a listing of system programs and utilities organized into logical groups, and can be customized later to suit your preferences.

This is a quick way to navigate to different locations on your system.

Here you can find ways to tweak most aspects of your system's behaviour.

These are a few small KDE programs for performing simple desktop tasks such as note-taking.

This section includes terminal programs for command line work, a process monitor, a system information center, and the DesktopBSD package manager for installing software.

Here we find more configuration tools like menu editors and desktop setting wizards.

In DesktopBSD 1.6 RC3, due to single-CD space limitations, only a calendar application is included. In the final release, you can expect to see programs like KWord, or OpenOffice installed for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, etc.

Included here are a selection of audio and video players, recorders, CD burners, etc.

This section includes programs for browsing the internet, IRC chat, email, BitTorrent downloading, and instant messenging.

Here we find image viewers, photo managers, paint programs, PDF file viewers, etc. In DesktopBSD 1.6 RC3, due to single-CD space limitations, larger programs like the GIMP were not included. Expect to see these in the 1.6 final DVD release.

Also included in this release are a number of simple games.

The true power of any UNIX-like Operating System lies at the Command Line Interface (CLI), and DesktopBSD is no different. Where the KDE desktop environment and the DesktopBSD tools can do most of everything you'll ever need, there will be times where using the CLI is simply faster or necessary.

To learn more about the CLI, DesktopBSD uses a CLI 'Shell' called BASH. You can read about Bash by entering man bash at the command line, or you can learn about it online at the wikipedia entry for a historical overview, and also the Bash reference manual. FreeBSD-World also has an excellent article on 25 must-know commands

In KDE, there is often more than one way of performing any action. For example, to open the Konsole shell, you can right-click anywhere on the desktop image to open the “Run” dialog.

To open “Konsole”, simply type it into the dialog box as shown, then click “Run”.

Another way to get to the “Run” dialog is to hold down “Alt” and “F2” on your keyboard.

The third way is to navigate using the “Kmenu” at the bottom left corner of your desktop as shown below.

A fourth way is to navigate using the “Kmenu” at the bottom left corner of your desktop as shown below.

To make it easier to get to “Konsole” in the future, you can create a desktop link icon by right-clicking the menu item and selecting “Add item to desktop” as shown below.

The “Konsole” icon has now been added to the desktop. To open Konsole, double-left click on the icon, or right-click the icon and choose “Open”

In this example, we will use the Konsole shell to open the configuration file /etc/fstab. This is a system file, so we will need “superuser” privileges in order to open and edit it.

At the prompt, type in “su” as shown below, and hit “Enter”.

We are being asked for the superuser or “root” password. Enter it now and hit the “Enter” key.

The shell prompt has now changed to indicate that we are running with superuser privileges. In this case, the prompt is “root”, but on your system it will be whatever you selected at installation time.

We will use the “Easy Editor” ( ee ) program to open the file, so type in the command as shown below.

The program Easy Editor now opens the file /etc/fstab and can be navigated using the up and down arrow keys.

Once we are finished editing the file, use the “Escape” key and the down arrow key to navigate to “File operations” and hit “Enter”. You can also use the “C” key to select “File operations”.

Navigate to “Save file” and “Enter”.

Use the “Escape” key again to bring up the main menu.

Navigate to “Leave editor” and “Enter”

We are now back to the shell superuser prompt. Type in “Exit” and hit “Enter”

This brings us back to the regular user prompt. Type in “Exit” and hit “Enter”. This will close the Konsole shell and return us back to the Desktop.