Go to ASB 9840. It's in the Applied Science Building, on the 9000 level, near the main staircase.
Log in. You should use the same username and password that you would for Webmail (or your email with Eurora or another reader, or for fraser.sfu.ca, or for your campus web space, or... . They should all be the same.)
The first time you log in, you will be asked several questions about your setup. You can leave them all at the default values.
Several windows will open when you log in. The bar at the top of each has several controls:
If you chose a different theme, the buttons will look different, the idea will be the same.
The first control (1) will display a menu of window actions if you click it. The next (2) minimizes the window; (3) enlarges the window to the full screen; (4) closes the window. You can also resize the window yourself by dragging the border around the outside.
A couple of information windows pop up when you log in. You can close these (and check the "don't show these again" boxes as well).
Now, we want to open a command console window. On the tollbar at the botton of the screen, click the Konsole button:
Type the command mozilla & in the Console and press enter. The Mozilla web browser should appear.
The & at the end of the command runs Moizlla in the background, so you can type more commands at the Konsole. You'll see something like [1] 456 printed after the command you typed; that is printed when you run a command in the background and you shouldn't worry about it.
Either close Mozilla or minimize it to get it out of the way.
Back at the Konsole, you can type commands like ls which lists the contents of the current directory (you probably don't have much there, a few files).
The particular commands that you're using depend on the course.
The one common thread is usually the Emacs text editor. Let's create a file called tour.txt. Type the command emacs tour.txt & . Again, since Emacs opens in another window, the ampersand lets us continue to type other commands at the console.
When the Emacs window comes up, you can type some stuff; it really doesn't matter what. When you're done, press C-x C-s (which is Emacs-speak for control-X, then control-S). This saves the file.
Switch back to the Console window (leave Emacs open). Type the command more tour.txt which displays the contents of the text file. You should see the same stuff you typed in Emacs.
Now, go back to Emacs. Make a few more changes and press C-x C-s to save them. Now, press C-x C-c (control-X then control-C) to exit Emacs. If you type more tour.txt again at the console you should see the changes.
Log off. To do this, right-click on the desktop and select "Logout" from the menu.