What? Repair Permissions again?

[picnics]

Hi everyone, this is my first post :-)

I've been a mac user since 1989 and up antil now, using a Mac was fun and user-friendly.

With all the system / file maintenance one is supposed to do, and expected to know how to do, it's no longer fun or user friendly!

I haven't a clue about using the terminal, and uite frankly I think it's a cheek that I'm expected to know how to use it if I want to keep my mac running properly.

Does Apple have any documentation or a simple guide on OS X system / file maintenance?
Something to explain what it is, when it should be done, and how to do it?

I get very nervous when I see all the "errors" in the log files,
stuff that couldn't be fixed or re-linked, prebinding permissions symbolic links BSD errors etc.... blah blah...
I get nervous BECAUSE I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT!!!

Isn't there a real easy solution to all this?

(Apologies if these issues have been answered elsewhere, I haven't read thru all the posts )

[contoursvt]

Maybe its just me but I find the file systems Apple releases to be less robust than others. I mean both OS9 and X have problems that need to frequently be repaired.

I am primarily a PC user but do have a G3 450 with 384mb ram running 10.2 right now.

I've used OS/2 2.1 and 3.0 for a few years and have to say it was very solid. NT4, Win2k and XP all formatted with NTFS seem to suffer from no serious file system problems either.

On OS9, I am almost guaranteed to walk to any machine and run norton disc doctor and have it find major errors. Seems like it doesnt even matter when. Heck errors may have been fixed a week prior... OSX is nowhere near as bad but I have to repair permissions twice. I'll be honest and say I cant remember the last time I had to actually scan the file system for problems on the PCs I've used except for anything running FAT and FAT32.

I have not bothered to run Linux on PC for very long so I cant comment.