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B. Coming from Windows or macOS

Where to find on amadeOS what you know from Windows or macOS.

The desktop

On Windows On macOS On amadeOS Chapter
Start menu Launchpad The drawers of the Front Panel, sorted by kind; the Application Manager in the Tools slot 22
Taskbar Dock The Front Panel; minimised windows as icons at the top left of the desktop 22, 23
Notification area Menu bar extras The status slot of the Front Panel: network, sound and updates 22, 27
Virtual desktops Spaces Four workspaces, each with its own colour 24
Desktop context menu — The Workspace Menu, right mouse button on the backdrop 24
Win+L Ctrl+Cmd+Q Super+L, or the padlock in the Front Panel 26
Alt+Tab Cmd+Tab Alt+Tab, with pictures of the windows of the workspace 23
Win+V — Ctrl+Alt+V, the clipboard history 36
Settings, Personalisation System Settings Settings Part IV
Shut down in the Start menu Apple menu EXIT in the Front Panel 26

Programs

On Windows On macOS On amadeOS Chapter
File Explorer Finder File Manager 41
Notepad TextEdit (plain text) Text Editor 42
WordPad, Word Pages, Word WritePad; LibreOffice Writer for larger documents 43
Excel Numbers, Excel LibreOffice Calc 43
PowerPoint Keynote, PowerPoint LibreOffice Impress 43
Visio — LibreOffice Draw 43
Outlook, Mail Mail Mailer 44
Outlook calendar Calendar Calendar 45
Outlook contacts, People Contacts Contacts, in the Text & Office and Mail & Internet drawers 45
Media Player Music, QuickTime Audio Station, Video Player 46
Photos Preview, Photos Image Viewer 47
Windows Fax and Scan Image Capture Image Scan 47
Adobe Acrobat Reader, Edge Preview PDF Viewer, in the Text & Office drawer 48
Calculator Calculator Calculator, in the Text & Office drawer 48
Edge Safari Firefox 48
Snipping Tool Screenshot Screenshot, in the Graphics drawer —
Recycle Bin Bin Trash Can in the Front Panel 41
Microsoft Store App Store Software, without an account 51
Windows Update Software Update The updates cell and Software 52
Task Manager, Event Viewer Activity Monitor, Console Hardware & System Info, Session Diagnostics & Logs 57
Printers & scanners Printers & Scanners Print Manager 27, 54
Command Prompt, PowerShell Terminal Terminal (xterm) in the Tools drawer 22

Ideas that work differently

  • No account. You log in with a user of this computer; no Microsoft or Apple account is involved (chapter 53).
  • Software from one source. Programs come from the Debian archive through Software, not as installers from web sites (chapter 51).
  • Updates when you want them. No forced restarts; updates do not change how the desktop looks (chapter 52).
  • Administrator with your own password. There is no separate administrator account to log in with (chapter 50).
  • Three mouse buttons. The middle button pastes the last selected text (chapter 21).
  • Drive letters. There are none. Everything is in one tree of folders that starts at /, and your own files are in your home folder, /home/<name> (chapter 41).
  • File names. Upper and lower case count: Letter.txt and letter.txt are two files.
  • Files of Windows and macOS. Word documents open in LibreOffice Writer, Excel and PowerPoint files in LibreOffice Calc and Impress, PDF files in the PDF Viewer (chapters 43 and 48).