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Mac OSX: An Introduction

hacker's profile picture
Published in 
2600 Salt Lake City
 · 12 Apr 2019

 

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-= Mac OSX: An Introduction =-

-= By ProtomanX =-
-= proto@geeksyndicate.net =-

-= http://www.2600slc.org =-
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MAC OSX

Before I begin to explain the actual functions of OSX, I'll run down the history of
Macintosh OSX.

On March 24th, 2001, the world was introduced to a Mach based BSD UNIX OS with a pretty
Graphical User Interface (GUI), called Aqua. The combination of the mach kernel BSD and
the classic apple, "Aqua" GUI, made one of the most powerful operating system (OS) ever
conceived.

Stable, thanks to BSD, and easy to use because of the Aqua GUI. Along with this, comes the
added function of CLI (Command Line Interface) for use with UNIX commands.

And so, here is a quick summary of what I believe is one the best operating systems ever
built. Or I guess OS(s) would be the correct way to phrase that. "As most people know, the
CLI is controlled through a series of shells. These shells are basically UNIX programs that
communicate directly with the operating system and issue your commands directly to the
kernel. A shell is what you see when you log into the CLI via the terminal util. The
default shell in MacOSX is tcsh."
Unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of commands and functions in the basic OSX shell.
Mostly server commands and what not. To fix this you will need to d/l the developer tools
application. found at http://developer.apple.com/ This will allow you to install other
shells and programs.

After you have installed developer tools the Terminal will have most Unix commands now. I
will not go into this because I myself have not played around with it enough to tell
people what to do in it. However, if you've used a Unix based OS, then you will know how to
get around in the CLI. Such as ssh, config, root, top, ps aux, etc. (Oooh hax0r words)
You may also need to d/l a text editor for your new CLI, this can just be found at
http://www.apple.com/ now you are basically set.

Other things that OSX comes with that are new to the Macintosh OS is the net info manager,
Process viewer, and console. These are all functions that let you monitor users on your
server, PID's and basically what your computer is doing, it is much like a super version of
the command, "top." (On another note, I noticed that XP carries these things as well) You
can end these processes and what not at your whim. Making your finder (The Aqua back bone)
almost impossible to crash. so if your other programs crash, you can just force quit back
to your finder and start that application back up.

Just because OSX has been built using Unix technology, doesn't mean they singled out their
faithful GUI users. This is were Aqua comes in.

If you have never liked CLI you can get by using just Aqua, never once having to look at
your terminal. Being an old school mac wh0re. I use the GUI more then the CLI, and it will
always be that way unfortunately. The GUI is beautiful however, you are not able to use
your old programs directly in Aqua, unless they have made a, "Carbon" update for your
program. OSX allows multiple programs to operate flawlessly, even your old ones. just not
quite to the same degree of carbon ones. If you are wondering how you can use your old and
much loved progs, it is quite simple. OSX comes with a, "Classic" start up version.
Allowing you to run your old programs through mac os 9.2 while still running OSX. however,
problems can arise with this, running the two at the same time can lag you down. Also,
there are still some conflicts with some older Mac programs, and they won't run. But, most
companies have made carbon versions of their software available for d/l to the public.

Mac OSX comes with some other fairly interesting goodies. such as an installed version of
apache. Ready for you to set up an ftp, or start hosting your web site. It also comes with
easy to follow directories. The multiple users functions are much more refined, so when
your kids, or friends have an account set up on your machine, they log in and can only see
THEIR desktop settings, items, etc.

There are tons of small little differences in Mac's new OS that, far too many to list in a
small talk like this. Basically, OSX isn't just eye candy; it is a super powerful operating
system that anyone from beginners to experts can use.


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� 2600SLC.ORG 2001
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