At the bottom of the screen you will notice a long, gray bar called the Panel. This is where applications are launched from, where you can switch desktops and where active applications are displayed. To launch an application you need to use the button at the far left of the Panel with a picture of a foot. This button is called the Main Menu Button.

When you click on the Main Menu Button button you will be presented with a menu that is broken up into sections. Each of these sections contains applications that you can launch. For example, the games section contains games such as solitaire and reversi, the Applications section contains an organizer and text editor and so on. Clicking on one of these icons will launch the application.

Once you have launched an application, an icon will be created for it on the Panel bar at the bottom of the screen (this area is called the Pager). To switch between running applications just click the icon of the application you need (or use ALT + Tab to switch as an alternative).