Ok I've seen in a few places now that have screenshots of peoples linux desktop
and they have this thing on the right side of the monitor that has all the system info.
Processor temp , clock , disk usage, etho etc....I keep seeing it everywhere except on
my desktop. Is there a way to turn this feature on or is something I will have to download?

Depends. Which window manager/desktop are you using? Gnome, KDE, Xfce, Fluxbox, something else?

I use KDE and Gnome

most likely you are asking about gkrellm, search for it on freshmeat.net and you will find it along with a load of themes and plug-ins its really a wonderful app other than that, with some WMs or DEs you have specialized little apps that do the same thing, g-desklets for gnome or epplets for enlightenment

Very often, its gkrellm:

http://web.wt.net/~billw/gkrellm/gkrellm.html

EDIT: watashiwaotaku7 and I had a brain sync.

Yeah cool i went and grabbed the rpm and installed it but now i don't know where
to go to run it..It seems like i never know where this stuff is installed too. On my Windows
machine i told it where to install on Linux it just goes and assumes i know wtf is going on.
I'm such a newb at this it is rather frustrating

I had a problem when I first installed gkrellm with gentoo because I needed to use gkrellm2 instead of gkrellm as that is truly what the program is gkrellm is the gtk version of gkrellm2 which runs on gtk2 so it is possible to have both programs installed, try executing gkrellm2 and in the future try locate gkrellm or find gkrellm or whereis gkrellm, each of those will search in slightly different ways with locate being the most general

edit
try configure --help or man configure to find out how to specify where programs are installed
/edit

all that went flying past and or over my head. I haven't a clue how to run programs once they are installed. do i goto the terminal and type /gkrellm how do i even get the thing to run

yes go to a terminal and type gkrellm or gkrellm2 it depends a lot on your distro and how things are installed and also, if you downloaded gkrellm or gkrellm2 or since you are using kde or gnome use the run command in either and type the same as in actuality this is only a shortcut to the console in its own right, configure is only applicable if you are installing from source which it sounds more likely that you are installing by rpm

Great that was it, now to play with all its features. I appologize about being so straight forward but when i don't know something it's best to just say I DON"T KNOW what you are talking about instead of stumbling my way through the dark trying to figure it out...Thank You Guys... There will be more questions i'm sure but thanks for the time you have spent reading this thread

absolutely I agree, if you dont understand something theres no point going on until you do, you have to just keep asking until you get it right and absorb as much knowledge as you can and hope it pieces itself all together (which it does one day youll look at you box and go "wow, I know this stuff) until then dont ever be afraid to say "I'm sorry but I simply haven't the slightest clue"

The difference is that under Linux it puts stuff into directories that are in your PATH (usually) so you (or another programme) can run it from anywhere rather than putting it into some path that you specify meaning that only you know where it is.

Executable programmes are commonly found in:
/bin
/sbin
/usr/bin
/usr/sbin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/sbin
/home/yourname/bin

The programme itself is likely to be in /usr/local/(s)bin, although it may well be in /usr/(s)bin. Since both of these will be in your PATH, you should have no problems running it from where-ever. Just open up a 'run box' and type gkrellm.