Techie info about OS X

[Gnorn]

I'm looking for some more detailed info about OS X. I couldn't quite find what I was looking for on the Apple pages (prolly looked in the wrong place) and want some further info besides OS X 101.

For example (still running OS 8.6) with that OS I know you dump such and so file in your System File, Extensions go here and there etc. and you can trash this and that file.

What I would like to read (I'm gonna buy a new Mac later this month) is how OS X is structured. And what role does Unix play, and possibly, what's up with the command line interface?

Hope someone can point me to some useful techie guides.

Cheers!

-Gnorn

 

[Applespider]

You might be best with a book -OS X: The Missing Manual which covers all that stuff.

Online - try having a read of John Siracusa's articles at Ars Technica. His OS X reviews - particularly the ones pre-OS X launch go into a fair amount of detail about how it all works - particularly with regard to how it differs from earlier Apple OSs

 

[Gnorn]

Cheers, I'll try and Google that.

 

[miniConvert]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X is a pretty good place to start! It's where I started when I was desperately waiting for my Mac to arrive and I learnt quite a bit. That was after I'd watched all the keynotes of course...

What! I had many years of not-having-a-Mac to catch up on!

 

[Gnorn]

Yeah, Wikipedi is awesome!

Mmm, where is the pre OS 8 time, where I could identify every single file on my HD (and trash it if nessecary) ?

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Mmm, where is the pre OS 8 time, where I could identify every single file on my HD (and trash it if nessecary) ?

Well what computer are you using? Before OS 8 was a while ago so I don't know what you are expecting to find. But what are you trying to optimize? Hard drive space? RAM use? Cause there are ways I can help you but just not sure what you are trying to do.

 

[Gnorn]

Well what computer are you using? Before OS 8 was a while ago so I don't know what you are expecting to find. But what are you trying to optimize? Hard drive space? RAM use? Cause there are ways I can help you but just not sure what you are trying to do.

I'm finally going to replace my Bondi rev. B, OS 8, with a new Mac, later this month

I'm a sucker for clean installations, so after setting my new mac up, I want to initialize the HD and do a clean install. That's because I want to control what is installed, and possibly where it gets installed. Not neccesarily to save HD space, but if I don't need something, why bother having it on my puter?

Before doing this, I want to learn about the way OS X handles files and system stuff etc. I know there are some standard folders (user folders and application folders for example?) and just want to know how how and why this all is.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

When I converted to OS X (back in early 2000's) the file structure was very different. To the point that I didn't like it cause I was soooo familiar with the Classic OS. It didn't take too long for me to love OS X.

But yeah the structure of Extensions and Control Panels is definitely gone. OS X structures most system files through the actual 'System' folder, or the 'Library' folder. The Library is what you modify mainly to change the functionality of the system. But as far as what gets installed and what not on the OS X disc, the Installer operates in the same Apple fashion, do a custom install to check off what you do or don't want.

I will say that I have taken to using an Uninstaller on OS X cause when programs get installed nowadays they can leave files all over the Library folder, and that is a bit of a drag, but if you use an uninstaller program "AppZapper" works great it is not as much of a problem.

What New System are you looking at?

 

[Gnorn]

I'm looking at the 17" iMac. Also waiting to see what specs the new iMacBook will offer, but I'm not expecting it to offer competative bang for it's money as compared to the iMac.

I'll be using it for surfing the interweb, creating webpages, and some creative stuff (I want to buy a simple 3D app like Vue Easel). Also very excited about iLife.

Anyhow, I want to understand what goes on on my computer, not just using it.

Edit: oops, that should be OS 8.6 in my previous post...

 

[howesey]

It's structured just like any other UNIX OS.


Do not worry about doing a clean install. OS X comes as clean as it gets when new. If you want to get rid of an app, just throw it into trash, along with the config files in 'application support' folder. All deleted.