"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.