Hi everyone. I'm new here to mac and i would like to ask a small but question thats been bugging me.... How exactly do the mac OS's work and what makes them different from windows. I mean where is everything stored? I can't seem to find anything useful on the internet to explain to me. Don't worry about getting technical.. I already know how every single thing works in windows.
New to Mac and Mac OS's
- Thread starter spearball
- Start date
Ferdinand
V. Tech
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ for new Mac Users
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ for Switchers (Windows to Mac)
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/switcher/ A great diagram of the GUI of Mac OS X!
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304720 Table of differences between Windows and Mac OS X
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ for Switchers (Windows to Mac)
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/switcher/ A great diagram of the GUI of Mac OS X!
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304720 Table of differences between Windows and Mac OS X
Mikuro
Crotchety UI Nitpicker
"Where is everything stored?" Not sure exactly what you mean by "everything" 
)), but here are some possible answers:
- The core of the OS lies in the /System folder. This is generally un-editable by users and applications.
- Temporary files, command-line tools, virtual memory, and miscellaneous Unix-y stuff are stored in the standard Unix places, which are invisible folders in the root directory of your startup volume (private, var, bin, tmp, etc.). If you want to poke around these folders, you might want to use Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities), or use the "Go to Folder" item in the Go menu and enter something like "/private". Don't mess with things if you don't know what you're doing, though, of course.
- Applications can go wherever you want them, usually, with a few exceptions (mostly pre-installed apps from Apple). The recommended place is, naturally, /Applications.
- Your application settings are stored in ~/Library/Preferences ("~" means your Home folder, if you're not up on Unix lingo).
- Your own documents go wherever you jolly well want to put them. I like to keep a few folders on my desktop for my own files, but I also use removable disks for a lot.
)), but here are some possible answers:- The core of the OS lies in the /System folder. This is generally un-editable by users and applications.
- Temporary files, command-line tools, virtual memory, and miscellaneous Unix-y stuff are stored in the standard Unix places, which are invisible folders in the root directory of your startup volume (private, var, bin, tmp, etc.). If you want to poke around these folders, you might want to use Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities), or use the "Go to Folder" item in the Go menu and enter something like "/private". Don't mess with things if you don't know what you're doing, though, of course.
- Applications can go wherever you want them, usually, with a few exceptions (mostly pre-installed apps from Apple). The recommended place is, naturally, /Applications.
- Your application settings are stored in ~/Library/Preferences ("~" means your Home folder, if you're not up on Unix lingo).
- Your own documents go wherever you jolly well want to put them. I like to keep a few folders on my desktop for my own files, but I also use removable disks for a lot.
Satcomer
In Geostationary Orbit
Well welcome to the Mac. If you are coming from a Windows platform you felt familiar with, then all that you need to understand the Mac is David Pogue's Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition. This book you can get in most brick bookstores and the book is a very easy to read and informative (with pretty pictures ). It will help you in understanding the Mac so much more.
Now one thing I did want to cover is internet video on the Mac. The internet is filled with so many different video codecs it is almost maddening. So the smart developer made the great Quicktime plugin Perian. Along with Apple's own MPEG 2 plugin for QuickTime Quicktime will play most files. However with the rise of propriety DRM schemes from Microsoft you will not be able to play Windows Media Player 10 files. I am sorry to say there is not a way to view those files on the Mac. You can thank Microsoft and the US DMCA law for this predicament.
Also there are two third party players that will play MANY video formats. They are VLC (hint: this program will also play DVDs) and MPlayer.
So here are the tools to play most all internet video/audio files (the QuickTime plugins will also play audio files in iTunes). Good Luck.
). It will help you in understanding the Mac so much more.Now one thing I did want to cover is internet video on the Mac. The internet is filled with so many different video codecs it is almost maddening. So the smart developer made the great Quicktime plugin Perian. Along with Apple's own MPEG 2 plugin for QuickTime Quicktime will play most files. However with the rise of propriety DRM schemes from Microsoft you will not be able to play Windows Media Player 10 files. I am sorry to say there is not a way to view those files on the Mac. You can thank Microsoft and the US DMCA law for this predicament.
Also there are two third party players that will play MANY video formats. They are VLC (hint: this program will also play DVDs) and MPlayer.
So here are the tools to play most all internet video/audio files (the QuickTime plugins will also play audio files in iTunes). Good Luck.
Although it's not _really_ a solution in the way most people mean it, you _can_ view DRM'd Windows Media files by actually installing Windows in Parallels or via BootCamp. However, I have yet to encounter a real need for that. Usually, something really important on video also comes in other formats, and I stay away from buying anything with Windows DRM.