Neither the X server nor the window manager provide a file manager; that
is, there aren't any windows containing icons for your files and
directories. You can launch a file manager as a separate application, and
there are many of them available. The GNOME desktop project is developing
an icon-based file manager and other GUI facilities. See the GNOME
homepage for the latest news on this.

A final feature of X is its network transparency, meaning that X clients
don't care if they're talking to an X server on the same machine or an X
server somewhere on the network. In practical terms, this means you can
run a program on a more powerful remote machine but display it on your
desktop computer.

Starting the X Environment

There are two ways to start X. The first is to start X manually when you
feel like using it. To do so, log in to one of the text consoles and type
startx. This will start X and switch you to its virtual console.

The second (and recommended) way to use X is with xdm or X Display
Manager. Basically, xdm gives you a nice graphical login prompt on the X
virtual console (probably VC 7), and you log in there.

By default, either method will also start an xterm, which is a small
window containing a shell prompt. At the shell prompt, you can type any
commands just as you would on a text VC. So you can follow all the
examples in this book using xterm; the only difference between an xterm
and the text console is that you don't have to log on to the xterm because
you already logged on to X.