One of the most important aspects of getting a Red Hat Linux system up and running is configuring the user interface. For most nonadministrative users, this means configuring the X Window interface. The X Window System is the Linux graphical user interface (GUI). While the GUI plays an integral part of other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, the X Window System on Linux is essentially just another application. Many administrators don’t even bother with the GUI; the command line interface is enough for most administrative purposes | RHCE RED HAT CERTIFIED ENGINEER 7 X Window System CERTIFICATION OBJECTIVES Q A X Server X Clients Window Managers Remote Display of X Apps Two-Minute Drill Self Test 376 Chapter 7 X Window System One of the most important aspects of getting a Red Hat Linux system up and running is configuring the user interface. For most nonadministrative users this means configuring the X Window interface. The X Window System is the Linux graphical user interface GUI . While the GUI plays an integral part of other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows the X Window System on Linux is essentially just another application. Many administrators don t even bother with the GUI the command line interface is enough for most administrative purposes. However regular users on a Linux workstation become more productive with the GUI and the multitude of X Window-based applications. If you are helping users migrate from Microsoft Windows to Linux the X Window System allows you to provide a less intimidating environment. Some Linux systems simply don t need the X Window System. For example computers that are used as dedicated DHCP DNS or NFS servers generally don t serve as workstations for anyone and therefore don t need any sort of GUI. Many Linux gurus have a negative bias toward the GUI. While Red Hat and others have developed some helpful GUI tools they are almost always front ends or programs that customize one or more commands at the command line interface. But if you re administering a network of Red Hat Linux computers you ll need to know how to administer the X Window System a skill that requires a basic understanding of the available desktops and window managers. e x a m at c h You need to know how to configure X Window and how to configure your Linux computer for a specific graphical logon manager. CERTIFICATION OBJECTIVE X Server The X Window System is designed as a flexible and powerful client server-based system. In order to configure and troubleshoot
