Getting Started to Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 User Interface
This tutorial will help you getting started with the graphical user interface (GUI) of Ubuntu 24.04 “Noble Numbat”. We intend this for beginners who just discovered Ubuntu and GNU/Linux especially those who already have background on Windows or macOS by the goal they can work quickly with Ubuntu. You will learn ten things, including understanding the desktop area and menus, in quick way with exercises you can do on your computer right away. Lastly, we make this as short as possible so you can focus. Now, let’s start reading and exercising!
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Desktop is the whole screen and its contents like buttons and menus you see when Ubuntu is running and ready to work. The word “desktop” comes from “desk” and “top” meaning a metaphor of working with computer is like working on top of a desk such as reading some books, writing and drawing on papers, crafting some creative works, etc. See the Ubuntu Desktop below.
- Top: Top Panel.
- Left: Dash.
- Center: Wallpaper.
- Right: Shortcut icon
Exercises:
1. Click Activities button. What does it do?
2. Click Ubuntu button. What does it do?
3. Click Tray button. What does it do?
4. Click Calendar button. What does it do?
5. Double-click the Home shortcut. What does it do?
Top panel is a full-width black panel located on top of your screen. Its default color is black, containing a white button, a time indicator saying for example “Aug 17 17:06” as well as Notifications Area, and important buttons indicating network, sound and (if any) battery. Top panel is one of the characteristics of Ubuntu since its first inception in 2004 to make it different to Microsoft Windows and is often likened by some people to top panel used in Apple MacOS although they have a lot of differences than similarities. See picture below.
- Left: White Button (aka “Activities”). Click this button to switch between applications you are currently running.
- Middle: Calendar Button and Notifications Area. Click this button to view today’s date, notifications and silent them if you wish to.
- Right: System Tray. See next section.
Exercises:
1. What time is it?
2. Where is the wifi button?
3. Where is the sound volume button?
4. What is the name of the top left button?
Dash is a quick way to run your application. It is the left panel containing apps sorted vertically from top Firefox to bottom the Ubuntu Menu. In the past, particularly in the era of Ubuntu Unity Desktop roughly 2011-2017, this left panel was called “Launcher.” See picture below and try the exercises!
- First / Top: Firefox.
- Second: Thunderbird.
- Third: Files.
- Fourth: Rhythmbox.
- Fifth: LibreOffice Writer.
- Sixth: App Center.
- Seventh: Help.
- Last / Bottom: Ubuntu Menu.
Exercises:
How to run an application?
1. Click first item on the Dash -> you run Firefox.
2. Click second item on the Dash -> you run Thunderbird.
3. Click third item on the Dash -> you run Files.
4. Do like 1-3 to run other apps located on Dash.
5. Press Super+1 to run Firefox.
6. Press Super+2 to run Thunderbird.
7. Press Super+3 to run Files.
8. Do like 5-7 to run other apps according to their order on the Dash.
Window
is the outer frame of every application that always has minimize,
maximize, close buttons (or the three-controls). Working with Ubuntu is
working with applications, and working with applications is working with
their windows. So knowing your window is very important. See picture
below and try the exercises!
- Top: Titlebar, application name, and control buttons.
- Second to top: Menubar (containing text commands like File, Edit, … Help).
- Third to top: Toolbars (containing icon commands like New, Open, Save … etc.).
- Right or left: sidebar.
- Center: Scroll bars (vertical and horizontal).
- Bottom: Status Bar.
Exercises:
1. Run Firefox -> is there application name visible?
2. Run Files -> is there application name visible?
3. Run LibreOffice Writer -> is there application name visible?
4. Using mouse, double-click titlebar area of Firefox -> what does it do?
5. Using mouse, right-click titlebar area of Files -> what does it show?
6. Using mouse, click-hold titlebar of Writer -> move it around -> can it?
Calendar and Notifications are located on Top Panel or top-middle of your screen. It says for example “Aug 17 17:17” meaning date 17 August 2024 time 17:06 PM. If you click it, it will show current Calendar and Notifications. See picture below.
- Top: date and time indicator.
- Left and right: notifications and calendar.
- Bottom: Do not disturb and Clear buttons.
Exercises:
1. Click Calendar button. What day is today?
2. Click Calendar button -> click Today Event -> what does it do?
3. Click Calendar button -> click Add world clocks… -> what does it do?
System Tray (also called “System Menu”) is a collection of special menus including network (or wifi), sound, battery and currently running applications that make use of tray. If you click it, you will be able to control sound volume, screen brightness and more. If you are running an application such as Remmina or Telegram, unlike most applications, it will show as window as well as tray icon on system tray.
- Panel: Remmina, Accessibility, Tray.
- Top: Battery Percentage, Take Screenshot, Settings and Shutdown.
- Middle: Volume and Brightness sliders.
- Bottom: Wifi/Network and Bluetooth, Power Mode and Night Light, Dark Style and Airplane Mode.
Exercises:
1. Can you find where is the Shutdown button?
2. Can you find where is the Restart button?
3. Can you find where is the Logout button?
4. Click Dark Style -> what does it do? -> which one do you like?
5. Click Airplane Mode -> what does it do? ->
Ubuntu Button (“Applications Menu”) is your way to search, find and run applications installed on Ubuntu. It shows you all apps not shown on the Dash. See two pictures below and try the exercises!
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Applications menu, first page. |
Second page. |
- Top: search bar.
- Second to the top: workspaces.
- Right: arrow to switch to second page.
- Left: arrow to switch to first page.
- Middle: applications.
- Bottom: page indicator.
Exercises:
1. Open Ubuntu Menu.
2. Type to search “libre”. What does it show?
3. Type to search “gnome”. What does it show?
4. Find “Utilities” and click it. What does it show?
5. Find “game”. Do you have any game yet?
6. Run Calculator. Is it able to do calculations?
Ubuntu has sets of applications and games which are native to Ubuntu just like Windows, MacOS and Android have for each own their sets of applications too. They are all different and you do not need to demand them all to be the same. In other words, please do not expect Ubuntu to give you Photoshop, and do not blame Ubuntu (or our community) for that, because Adobe is the one who does not give Photoshop for you to run on Ubuntu. Please apply this principle to Microsoft Office and any other proprietary apps and games. So what you need to learn? You need to learn your Ubuntu applications to do daily jobs not losing to (and if you can, without depending to) Windows and macOS. We will introduce here shortly just the seven apps you see on the Dash:
Firefox: your web browser. This is Ubuntu official browser in comparison with Edge (formerly Internet Explorer) and Chrome and Safari on proprietary systems. Use this to work with the internet, find information, read email, play videos, and download anything.
Thunderbird: your email client. This is Ubuntu official mailer in comparison with Outlook and Gmail App on proprietary systems. Use this to access your Gmail account so you can mail safely without nonfree JavaScript as well as privacy issues.
Files: your file manager. This is Ubuntu official file manager in comparison with Windows Explorer and Finder on proprietary systems. This is the “heart” of your system. You work with accessing, opening, copying, pasting, deleting, files and folders, photos and videos, documents and multimedia files, in the disk drives by using this.
Rhythmbox: your music player. This is Ubuntu official music player in comparison with Winamp and iTunes on proprietary systems.
LibreOffice: your office suite. This is Ubuntu official office suite program in comparison with Microsoft Office, 365, Google Docs and Apple Office on proprietary systems and SaaSS platforms.
- Writer (blue): your word processor.
- Calc (green): your excellent spreadsheet.
- Impress (orange): your powerful presentation maker.
- Draw (yellow): your PDF editor, flowchart and vector drawing illustrator.
- Math (pink): your equation editor, that is, program to write beautiful mathematical formula from simple ones like division and algebra to complex ones like integral and sigma.
App Center: your app store. This is Ubuntu official app store in comparison with Apple App Center and Google Play Store on proprietary systems.
Help: your user guide and documentation. Ubuntu does not leave you alone! Ubuntu gives you a service with heart through Help. Want to know about Printer? Open Printing chapter there. Want to know about hard disk? Open Disk & Storage chapter there. And so on.
More apps and games: find more at App Center!
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0AD |
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 Warzone 2100
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 Super Tux Kart |
 Xonotic |
Ubuntu allows you to make desktop shortcuts (also called “shortcut icons”) in a certain way. By default, there is only one shortcut icon that is “Home” on desktop. To make shortcuts of your favorite apps or documents, like what you could do on Windows and MacOS, follow procedures below:
1. Open Files.
2. Go to /usr/share/applications.
3. In that directory, you will see many dot desktop (.desktop) files. Let’s say you want LibreOffice Writer shortcut on desktop.
4. Find a file named “libreoffice-writer.desktop”.
5. Unmaximize Files window, then drag-and-drop that file out into desktop area.
6. Right-click the file on desktop > Allow Launching > done.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 to make another shortcuts.
8. Repeat 5-6 to make shortcuts for PDF, photo or any other documents.
Ubuntu allows you multi monitor work even though you do not have except just one monitor. This technology is called “workspace” or “virtual desktop” that is a unique feature of Ubuntu since its first inception back in 2004, it’s well maintained until today and we can say Canonical successfully kept it alive for twenty years for us. In general, Windows users do not know workspace so if you are one, you will feel this feature is new to you. See picture below.
Exercises:
How to make use of workspace?
1. Run Firefox.
2. Run Files.
3. Press Super key.
4. Computer will show all running apps, as well as current and next workspace to the right.
5. Drag and drop Firefox from current workspace to right.
6. Now you have Files in current, and Firefox in right workspace.
7. Press Ctrl+Alt+Right, you move to right workspace, like moving to second monitor.
8. Press Ctrl+Alt+Left, you move back to left workspace, like moving back to first monitor.
Settings is the place for system configurations on Ubuntu similar to Control Panel and Settings on Windows, MacOS and Android. For example here’s some exercises:
To view information or adjust settings of:
1. System Information: scroll down -> go to System -> About.
2. Printer: go to Printers -> plug your printer cable in -> click Add Printer.
3. Touchpad: go to Mouse & Touchpad -> scroll down -> Touchpad.
See picture below.
GNOME Tweaks is the place for system customization such as installing new desktop themes, switching between icon themes, etc. However, Tweaks is not preinstalled by default so you need to install it manually to have it.
GNOME Extension Manager is the place for installing many useful and fun Desktop Extensions — small programs that add functionalities to your desktop. Similar to Tweaks, Extension Manager also needs to be installed manually, and they are a good customization pair. Read our tutorial Getting Started to Extensions Management.
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This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.