11-04-2007, 02:53 PM

Hey everyone. i have just made the switch from Windows and bought a Macbook Pro. Do you have any good sites to recommend me?

I want to learn the internals of Mac. For example, i have just installed Firefox but I dont know where it's executable is stored. Also, i want to know all the interesting things i can do with Mac's terminal/automator. These are some examples of what i want to learn.

Thanks

11-04-2007, 02:57 PM

Get "Mac OS X Tiger Edition The Missing Manual" - a virtual power house of knowledge and a great place to start. I know that Leopard is just out, so if there is already a Leopard version of this book, get that. If not, get the Tiger version. Still immensely useful.

11-04-2007, 03:15 PM

Believe me you will not turn back to PCs ever again, unless if your job uses them

11-04-2007, 03:15 PM

I'd also use the search function on the forums. Probably most questions you could ever asked have already been discussed. You'll find alot of information.

11-04-2007, 03:17 PM

*Moved thread to proper forum*

Take a look at the stickied threads in this forum, they have a lot of info you'll need.

11-04-2007, 03:21 PM

Open a terminal window.. Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.

Type:

ls (chances are it will show you your user directory)
cd ../..
ls (verify you can see the Applications folder)
cd Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS
ls (will show you the contents including where the firefox executable is stored)
./firefox (will run Firefox)

that's where the firefox executable is stored..

11-04-2007, 03:28 PM

Executables, as you know them, should be placed into the Applications Folder. Something like Firefox does not do this automatically. Here is how the majority of Mac OX X Apps should 'install'

1) Download the DMG to any folder. Download folder is good, or the desktop
2) Open the DMG by double clicking and follow the instructions if any. Sometimes you need to enter your admin password
3) This usually creates a mounted drive on the desktop, maybe called Firefox or whatever you're installing
4) Open this by double clicking, and you'll see an executable file
5) Drag this into your applications folder. Remember to drill into folder when dragging, just hold the cursor over a directory, after a second or two it flashes and you drill into the next folder down
6) Once on your applications folder, you can add it to the dock by dragging it there
7) Drag the mounted drive created by the DMG to the trash to unmount it. You won't be needing it again

Now the icons in the Apps folder are not necessarily single files, but they simply look that way to clean up the interface.

You can find any file very quickly by clicking the magnifying glass in the top right hand corner of your screen and typing in the name.

Occasionally, some very large programs 'install' in the same way they do in Windows, i.e. automatically. These will be in .pkg files.

11-04-2007, 03:48 PM

As a former long time Windows user myself, there is always the temptation to dig into the underbelly of the OS. One of the nice things about Mac OS is that you don't really have to.

I would recommend a couple of things right off the bat.
Make sure you have a backup. If you are going to mess around with the "internals" so early, you might make a mistake, I know I did, and my backup saved me.

Read the Forums and get a feel for what people have been doing with their Macs and some of the issues they may have had.

Many people suggest that if you are a new Mac User, you should set up another non-administrator User Account and play with the Mac for a while that way, so you don't do something hastily that you might regret.

11-05-2007, 11:00 PM

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply. I read each and everyone of them. I'm excited what OS X can offer.

Thanks again.