I'm brand new (this week) to Linux...Specifically Mandrake 10.1 (Mandriva 10.1?). Overall I'm very satisfied with this OS. I'm having slight difficulty though understanding and manipulating menus, Panels, and Launchers for the the "start button" feature on my gnome desktop. I want to remove some things and add others and all I've been able to do is add launchers (I think) to already existing panels (or menus...I'm not sure) . Any advice?

The panels in GNOME are the little bars that are on the bottom (and sometimes top, or even on the sides) of your desktop. Think of them like the Windows taskbar on steroids Panels can have all kinds of things on them, like launchers, clocks, volume control, window switcher buttons, and things of the like.

Adding things to a gnome panel is easy. Just find some empty space on the panel you want to add to, right-click on it and go to "Add to panel." A list of all kinds of things comes up. Click on what you want to add and click on the Add button (will have a plus sign next to it.)

If you want to get rid of something on a panel, right click on what you want to remove and click on "Remove from Panel" (has a minus sign next to it)

Deleting/Adding new panels is also just as simple. To delete a panel, find some free space on the panel you want to delete and click "Delete Panel" (It'll have a garbage can next to it) To add a new panel, right click on free space on any panel and click "New panel" (will have a plus sign with a piece of paper)

HTH, and welcome to the Linux community!

Thanks for the help!

I understand how to make new ones now, but how do you delete items from a main menu - for example, if you added an application that has subsequent submenus, how do you delete the whole application from the main menu?

There is an app called gnome menu editor.
http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=867
check it out, it is prob included in the mandrake repos that you have.

Thanks again for the help!

Any ideas on how to install the patches that go with the menu editor? I go to the websites that the writers tell me to but the patches are text documents with the actual code...i.e. without an "installer program" to take care of it for me, I'm not sure how to proceed...any advice?

What patches?
http://manny.cluecoder.org/packages/gnome-menu-editor/

Umm...are you even using GNOME? I thought Mandriva used KDE by default. Anyway, to edit KDE's menu, there should be a K Menu editor (K Menu is like the "Start" button menu in Windows, in the lower left corner).

[edit: added:] Nevermind, I just did a search on your username and I gather you are indeed using GNOME.

After I open the .TAR file, there's a read me file that instructs me to install the following two patches prior to the menu editor:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168526

&

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168616

On Mandriva do not use the gnome menu editor, use "menudrake" or you may end up with messed up menus.

Thanks for the help!