Beneath the Mac OS X easy-to-use Aqua user interface is a robust and complete UNIX operating system called Darwin. Darwin is based on open technologies such as FreeBSD, Mach, Apache, and GCC. Terminal is your access point to the complete UNIX operating system beneath Mac OS X.
Terminal is a text-based application that allows you to interact directly with the BSD operating system. If you have used UNIX before, you’ll feel right at home. Mac OS X comes with hundreds of powerful UNIX applications already included.
Accessing the UNIX operating system on your computer
You can access the UNIX operating system by entering commands in the Terminal window. Beyond just giving you access to the UNIX operating system, Terminal in Mac OS X provides numerous shortcuts that can save you time compared to a standard UNIX system. You can copy and paste text commands into the Terminal window. You can also drag file or folder into Terminal and have the correct path entered on the command line.
Customizing Terminal
You can customize Terminal in a number of ways. You can change the color of the text and background, use different character sets, or use different shells. You can save different settings to switch quickly between configurations.
Using UNIX on Mac OS X
All the standard UNIX commands, tools, and scripting languages are included in Mac OS X. If you’re new to UNIX and need a few commands to get started, click UNIX basics below.
To learn more about UNIX on Mac OS X, go to the Apple UNIX website.