When you start  for the first time, the application opens a terminal window with a group of default settings. The group of default settings is called the Default profile. The profile name appears in the titlebar of the  window.   Window default window default window
The terminal window displays a command prompt where you can type UNIX commands. The command prompt can be a %, #, >, $, or any other special character. The cursor is positioned at the command prompt. When you type a UNIX command and press Return, the computer executes the command. By default,  uses the default shell specified for the user who starts the application.
also sets the following environment variables:
TERM
Set to xterm by default.
COLORTERM
Set to gnome-terminal by default.
WINDOWID
Set to the X11 window identifier by default.
