Learning the Manjaro way - 2 First Steps

Ok, now, with some luck if you are a complete newbie to the Linux world, you have installed Manjaro on your computer.

First thing to know. You have a lot of programs/application already installed on your system (unless you've done a barebone installation, but I didn't explained to you how to do that... so I presume you have a default installation). I will also presume that you are using KDE as a Desktop Environment (DE, the look and feel of your desktop, so to say).

So if you click on your Manjaro icon (a green M) on bottom left (or top left... or wherever you find it. It's the icon that shows the menu for everything that is installed on the system.
Programs are divided into categories, so if you are looking for a music player you can search it under Multimedia, if you look for the word processor, look in Office and so on.
Some programs already installed?
- LibreOffice (a office suite with word processor, spreadsheet and so on)
- DigiKam (to manage import of photos from a camera)
- GIMP (to edit images)
- Amarok (music player)
- Dragon Player (video player)

Just take some time and know your programs. Open them, use them and decide if you like them. Take note of this... it will be useful later on.

Now that you know a little better what you have under your hands, it's time to update the system. As every OS in the world, Linux is constantly improving (ok... I am refraining from making jokes about Windows...). So having the system up to date is really a good thing. Manjaro uses Pacman to install/remove/manage programs and the system. Pacman is a program that works using commands written in a Terminal. What's a Terminal? A Terminal is a program that sends commands to the system to manage it. You will learn to use the Terminal sooner or later. Maybe just for few commands, but you'll  learn that it's really easier than you would have ever expected it to be!
But, for the time, just know that Pacman, the "manager" of the system, can be managed using GUI Front End program (Graphic User Interface... a program that allows you to use your mouse to do things) that is called Octopi. Somewhere on the screen you will find a icon that looks like a octopus (look in the system bar, the bar where there is the Manjaro green "M", on the right there is what is called the System Tray, where icons as the volume, the network indicator are). That is the Octopi icon. If it is green, everything is up to date, if it is some other colour (yellow or red) it means that the system can be updated.

So, now it's time to Update your system: open Octopi clicking with the right button of the mouse on the Octopi icon in the bar and click on Octopi in the menu that appears. On the upper left of the Octopi window that will open there is the File menu, click there, click Sinc Database, insert your password, insert it again because I am sure you inserted it wrong, and wait for the program to check if there are updates. Than in the menu Transaction click on Commit... and update should start.

Next time... 3 Second Steps

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