CentOS 9 : desktop functionality question

[ron7000]

new 9 user, installed last night in place of 7.9. Never used RHEL/CentOS 8.x.

Installed as Server with GUI, after logging in I have just a blank desktop with [something] in upper left corner, sorry I forget the syntax.

But I am used to always right clicking on the desktop and doing "open terminal". Now, I have to mouse cursor to upper left then the desktop shrinks 20% and then in the middle bottom is what now is the menu bar? I have a firefox icon, my terminal window icon, software, settings...

I don't like all that mouse travel every time I want to just open a terminal window; also is there a way to save shortcuts (like terminal window or firefox) onto the desktop in centos 9 now?

[lightman47]

I have a RHEL 9 VM (not CentOS) and, for now, dislike that it starts by default in "Activities" mode with the oval of commonly used activities at the bottom center. Because of your query, I paid attention to that oval, 2nd from the right was Terminal". Simply <click> on it.

This might be a good thing! Every RH major release is learning and adjusting to new things. Thank you for making me pay attention! I might like this as I learn how to 'adjust' it.

[TrevorH]

Or you could just rip out gnome3 and install a decent window manager that is actually designed for humans to use.

[ron7000]

how can I "rip out gnome3" and how/where can I install a replacement for it and what?

my centos9 setup is for testing, I have no problem trying anything and nuking my installation, I'll just reinstall from usb stick.

I would really like to get some understanding on window managers other than gnome, and how to make those happen in RHEL/CentOS... v9 or v7.

[TrevorH]

Install the epel-release package and run yum grou list and you should see groups like "KDE Plasma Workspaces" and "Xfce". Those are not gnome3.