In contrast to most proprietary operating systems, Fedora 11 has several desktop environments or desktops that can display and launch available applications and manage the overall appearance of the screen. The desktop environment is sometimes referred to as the Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Three widely-used desktops included with Fedora 11 are:

With few exceptions, applications included with a particular desktop environment run in other environments too. For instance, the OpenOffice.org office suite runs on all three major desktop environments.

Some applications are created specifically for a particular desktop environment. For example, each major desktop has a preferred text editor. GNOME uses Gedit and KDE supplies Kedit , but you can install and use these in either environment.

Fedora provides a wide choice of applications to browse the World Wide Web, create documents, and display and edit photos. This guide describes the most commonly installed applications on the most common desktop environments, as well as the useful alternatives.