Applications - The Applications menu contains a variety of icons that start software applications. The icons are ordered by category. It is similar to the Microsoft Windows Start menu.

Places - The Places menu contains a customizable list of directories, mounted volumes , recent documents, and a Search function. Volumes that are mounted may be external USB drives (flash, hard disk, CD, etc.), directories shared across a network, or other media devices such as a portable music player. Read more about this in Chapter 4, Using Media .

System - The System menu contains a variety of items. Log Out , About , and Help are self-explanatory. Lock Screen starts the screen saver or blanks the screen and prevents the desktop from being used until a password is entered. Preferences contains tools for configuring peripherals and the desktop. System Settings also contains configuration tools that are for administrative purposes and usually require root access; that is, when those applications are started, the root password must be entered to continue.