Mac Tutorial So youve got a mac eh?

[galexcd 0]

Alright. I guess I'll start by introducing myself. I'm alex, and I've been an avid mac user for a while now. This is my first tutorial on Xisto so try to bear with me. This isn't an introduction on how to use a mac, or a tutorial that lets switchers understand the difference between a mac and windows, or linux. This tutorial discusses how mac's file management works and what exactly is in the "library" folder or the "users" folder.

 

Since OS X is unix based a lot of this will be similar to linux, but at the same time, a lot will be different. I'm going to try to make this tutorial as graphical, and helpful as possible for those who aren't quite sure where exactly macs keep all their data for the system, etc...

 

Now, If you've used OS 9, you'll notice a lot is different in os x. In os 9, there were 2 folders the system actually used in the startup disk: System folder, and Desktop folder. The desktop folder is the actual folder that held everything you put on the desktop. And the system folder was where all the system files were held. In mac OS X it is much different.

 

Here is a picture of my startup disk, root directory:

As you can see... there are alot more folders than a startup disk running only os9 on it has.

 

Before I get into what exactly the library folder does, and why there are so many of them, I need to explain the users folder first.

The users folder basically holds all the users on the system. Every user (unless it is a network user), gets his or her own folder in the users folder. Whichever user is currently logged in gets a little icon of a home on their folder. This folder is called their home folder. Inside each user's home folder, there are several pre-made folders. They are folders like movies, music, pictures, and another one of those damn Library folders!   A picture of some of the folders in my home folder: Note: These folders are where programs such as iPhoto, iTunes, and other mac apps store their data. This is always useful if you want to find where your actual files are being stored. Also, another folder in your home folder is called desktop. Since every user has his or her own desktop, and cant see each others, this is stored in here too:

 

Now onto the question I get asked the most from new mac users: What are all of those library folders doing?

New mac users might be confused at first with all the folders called "library". There is the library in the root directory, there is one when you open up your "System" folder, and there is one when you go to your home folder. So what's the difference? Well that's what I'm going to explain to you now:

I'll start with the library folder in your home folder.

Basically all the library folders do is hold data for the system. I guess you can imagine them as actual libraries, with tons of books just holding all the information the system needs to run. The one in your users folder holds everything you as a user have set. It holds all your system preferences, like what desktop background you chose, what items are in your dock, some applications also store data in here under the folder "Application Support". This is data that a specific user sets and only pertains to that specific user. For example, safari stores the user's bookmarks in this folder.

Now The library folder in your root directory holds different kind of stuff... It holds the data that applies for all users. You may notice in OSX some applications, and other things such as dashboard widgets, screen savers, etc. will ask you if you want to install them for this user only, or all users on the computer. If you select this user only, it will install into the library folder in your home folder, but if you select all users, it installs into the library folder in the root directory. Think of this folder as kind of a public library, where all the users can get and set the same preferences. Some cases call for all the users to share the same data, and if so, OS X stores it in this folder.

 

Now on to the last library on your computer: The library in the "System" folder. Now, don't confuse this with the "System Folder" folder in your root directory, with the big 9 over a folder as the icon. This is the os 9 system. The os X system folder is just called "System". Inside the library folder in the "System" folder, is all the data the actual system needs to work. It doesn't hold preferences, and other things that the other 2 library folders held, it holds the actual system itself. All the applications that are running, along with all the images, and code required for the system to successfully run is in this folder. This folder is extremely dangerous to play around in. In-fact, before Panther (10.3), you needed to be logged in as root in order to change anything in there. Now, all you need is to have an administrators password and you can "Authenticate" your actions. Personally I've found that if you are bored with the way your system looks, you can have a lot of "Fun" in this folder. You can probably find most of the images for the system by just doing a google search of where that image is held. Just be going to a random folder I actually found where the background for the dashboard is held.

 

Go to you startup disk, then System>Library>Core Services>Dock.

 

This is the application that runs the dock and dashboard. To see what is inside, right click, and select "Show Package Contents".

Then navigate to contents>resources>perf.png. This is the actual picture that makes the background for the dashboard. You can find many other images in this folder, including your trash icon, the finder icon, the poof animation when you drag something out of the dock, and a whole bunch of other pictures just waiting for you to change them!

 

Just for fun, I'm giong to chagne perf.png.

I just drew a big red line through the image so you can tell that it's been modified. And now lets see what my dashboard looks like:

Go to you dashboard, and click the plus in lower left to add widgets, and check out the new bar that shows up:

 

Al ot of other applications in the core services folder can be opened and tampered with. If you know what you are doing, you can even change plists to not only change the appearance of the application, but also different functionalities. This doesn't just apply to the applications in core services, almost any application designed for os x will store all the data files within the application itself.

 

This concludes my tutorial on the file management of OS X. Hopefully you learned on how the system works a lot more than you did before.

Cheers!

[Blessed 0]

Greetingsi'm rucellthats nice tutorial mani'm not really a mac user i dont like the way it works,i've been working with it for 2 years on my school so i know a bit of it :unsure:but normaly i use windows xp,but this is a nice tutorial for the MAC userskeep up the good work m8Thanx

[galexcd 0]

Thanks for the comment. Most pc users don't really understand this because windows is still designed a lot like mac os 9 was. There was a roomer that longhorn was supposed to be unix based, which probably meant that they were going to switch over to this format, but I'm not exactly sure what happened to it. I'm guessing most linux users can relate to this seeing as they have a home folder, but it isn't exactly structured the same way.Anyway, thanks for the complement!