linux equivalent of windows "startup"?

[hughitt1]

hiya,

was wondering if anyone could explain the different ways of having things run on start up for linux? In windows you normally just add a link to the "start" (or whatever its called) folder in the menu, and it will boot when windows loads.

In linux it seems there are different ways to do it for the distribution itself (e.g. ubuntu) vs. kde vs. gnome.

So i'm not sure if i wanted to tell gaim to load when gnome/kde loads, or to tell a driver to load when ubuntu loads, where to set this up.

Any help would be appreciated!
thanks
Keith

[techieMoe]

In KDE there's a directory called autostart if I'm not mistaken. It's hidden inside your /home/yourusername/.kde/ directory. As for the details on how it works... I honestly couldn't tell you. It's just a place to start.

[bryansmith]

Check out this link: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Autostart_Programs

It should work for any distro - there doesn't appear to be anything Gentoo specific.

Bryan