A Beginner is curious on beginning...

[ranmac]

This first post has multiple goals: 1) get acquainted with some Mac Mavens 2) show my daughter how to mingle in the forums 3) learn the basics in our crossover and 4) settle in for a long winters nap

After 4 years of college, my daughter surprised me by asking for an Apple to start her career in architecture. Old Dad ordered up the same Macbook Pro he had his eyes on (Dad needs to start saving again) and told the daughter she will be the one who needs to learn and teach Dad.

Well...she charged the battery and fired it up, got registered and has been in heaven for the last month. Now Dad is wondering what she has done in creating her account. Does OS 10.5.3 have multiple Users like XP? I'm afraid she has created an Admin account or is running in root, if that's what you call it

How can I check? Would love to help her get set up so she doesn't click the wrong icon...and she can!!! I spent 4 years fixin' her XP system...yukkk

Any help, guidance or direction would be greating appreciated in getting off to a safe start.

ranmac's Dad

PS: OS X is all they said it is and Dad is asking Santa for one

 

[cwa107]

This first post has multiple goals: 1) get acquainted with some Mac Mavens 2) show my daughter how to mingle in the forums 3) learn the basics in our crossover and 4) settle in for a long winters nap

Welcome, you've found a good forum with some nice folks here.

After 4 years of college, my daughter surprised me by asking for an Apple to start her career in architecture. Old Dad ordered up the same Macbook Pro he had his eyes on (Dad needs to start saving again) and told the daughter she will be the one who needs to learn and teach Dad.

Sounds great.

Well...she charged the battery and fired it up, got registered and has been in heaven for the last month. Now Dad is wondering what she has done in creating her account. Does OS 10.5.3 have multiple Users like XP? I'm afraid she has created an Admin account or is running in root, if that's what you call it

User accounts are generally administrator accounts when you first make them. That's OK though, because they don't have the same kind of permissions an administrator account would have in Windows. Instead, when a user tries to make a modification to a sensitive file or area, OS X requests escalation to "super user" status (i.e. you get prompted for your admin password).

How can I check? Would love to help her get set up so she doesn't click the wrong icon...and she can!!! I spent 4 years fixin' her XP system...yukkk

You can see the account status in System Preferences => Accounts

Any help, guidance or direction would be greating appreciated in getting off to a safe start.

I'd highly recommend David Pogue's Mac OS X: The Missing Manual - it covers OS X, the iLife suite and helps you get used to all things Mac.

ranmac's Dad

PS: OS X is all they said it is and Dad is asking Santa for one

Good luck! Hope you've been a good boy this year.


P.S.... check out the article here.

 

[skybolt]

Generally, when you set up a new mac, the account that is created is an admin account. There are several schools of thought as to whether one should run as admin or not. Seems like most feel that it is fine to run that way. You can, however, set up as many other accounts as you wish, with varying permissions. Go to System Preferences > Accounts to set up more.

And welcome! You will both love it here! And love your macs!

 

[ranmac]

Thanks for your comments and welcome, cwa107 & skybolt.

I found the accounts on her Macbook..."her name" (Admin) and Guest (for sharing only). Maybe I'm paranoid, but her habit is to turn her Mac off is to shutdown without logging off and when she turns it back on it automatically takes her into "her name" (Admin) account.

Glad to hear that Mac has a super Admin account above the normal Admin to help in watching over her activities.

cwa107...

Kismet, David Pogue's book which Santa brought me last Christmas;and I was saving it till I got my Mac

Nice link to article...I'm the reader and my daughter likes to "click and exclaim oooppps!!"

skybolt...

re-phrase to "...will love your Macs." I'm still waiting

I set a date and started saving for a Mac almost 9 months before when Leopard was scheduled to launch. I sacrificed and gave my daughter the Mac I saved for in reward for her efforts at the School of Archtecture.

I get to play on her Mac this week cause she's off to Mexico with some missionaries building an orphanage. An architect getting her hands dirty is a good thing.

Once again, thanks for help on my first crossover question...

I promise many more to come

 

[ranmac]

Sorry to awaken a dead horse, but my mind has been overactive the last few days...must be a symptom of Mac crossover

When I went looking for the Users on the Macbook, why didn't this super admin show up? Is this by design and/or security? Does she use the same password as the regular admin user?

Guess I'm just an over-protective Dad that has too much of the other OS in me

Tips and tricks are welcome...

 

[cwa107]

I don't believe you can actually log in as root (basically the highest level administrator account on a UNIX-like OS). But you don't need to because you can elevate your permissions anytime it's needed by using the sudo command (obviously when you're in the GUI and you need uber-admin rights, OS X will automatically prompt you for your admin password).

It takes a bit to get used to, particularly if you've never used anything but Windows (in Linux, this is a very familiar concept).

 

[rman]

Like cwa107 stated the root account is not enabled. This is the default mode. You can enable the root account, then you would need to enable the other log ins to log in as root. The way the system is set up you really don't need root, you can use sudo to do the things that you need root to do.

 

[ranmac]

Thanks for your comments, which put me at ease a little more about Mac's admin account. I am sure my daughter will be just fine with her new Macbook Pro and running as Admin.

Your correct about my experience with Windows only, except for a brief stint with Mandrake 7.0 a few years ago. Guess I had better rush my savings for my own Mac ( a black MacBook Pro) so I can play catch up...wouldn't know what to do if I had to rely on my daughter for tech support

I'm sure I'll have many more dumb questions during the crossover

Great spot to hang out,

ranmac's Dad