<p>Haiku's graphical user interface is an integral part of the system. Unlike unix-based operating systems, there's no separate window manager and booting just into a command line shell is not possible. Haiku's focus being on the desktop user, this is just not considered necessary.
</p><p>As you probably have experience with other graphical environments, let's skip over the standards like menus, right-click context menus, drag&drop etc. Let's have a look at the few unique aspects of Haiku's GUI instead.</p>
</p><br>
<p>Before we start with that, there's one more thing you'll probably run into quite quickly: By default, Haiku's option key, to invoke commands from menus for example, is not the usual <tt>CTRL</tt> key, but <tt>ALT</tt> instead. This has historical reasons, because the BeOS was inspired somewhat by MacOS. After you get used to it, it actually feels better as e.g. <tt>ALT+C</tt> and <tt>ALT+V</tt> is reached more conveniently on the keyboard and these commands seemlessly integrate into the bash shell of the Terminal.
</p><p>In any case, you can switch to the maybe more familiar <tt>CTRL</tt> key in the <i>Menu</i> preferences.
There are only a few things in Haiku's GUI that aren't obvious and deserve an explanation.
</p><p>
[1] The Deskbar is Haiku's "Start" menu and taskbar, if you will. See topic <ahref="deskbar.html">Deskbar</a>.<br>
[2] The yellow tab offers more than just a program's name or a document's filename:<ul><li>You can move it by holding the <tt>SHIFT</tt> key while dragging it to another position, enabling you to stack a number of windows and conveniently access them by their named tab.</li>
<li>You minimize a window with a double-click on its tab. A such hidden window can be accessed by its entry in the <ahref="deskbar.html">Deskbar</a> or the <ahref="twitcher.html">Twitcher</a>.</li>
<li>You can send a window to the back with a right-click on its tab (or its border).</li></ul>
[5] The resize button. Dragging anywhere else on a window's border will move the window.<br>
</p><p>That's pretty much all there is to Haiku's GUI widgets in general. You'll find more information in <ahref="welcome.html#system">Getting to know the system</a>.
