Operating Systems > macOS
tell me about mac os
hm_murdock:
UNIX-y feel?
Not really. You have to *go look for* the UNIX stuff. Your portal is Terminal ( located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). Terminal is just that... it's like xterm in *nix.
But, Mac OS X is a strange animal, it's both "a UNIX" and "not a UNIX".
Darwin, the core bits of the OS are built from the Mach kernel, using a BSD subsystem. All the utilities are from BSD code.
You never see any of the UNIX, because, honestly, it has no bearing on what you're doing. The BSD subsystem provides kernel-level drivers for hardware and devices. User-level access is provided through the NeXTStep layers that ride atop UNIX.
If you know anything at all about NeXTStep or OpenStep, or Rhapsody, then you can bank on it that OS X is 99% the same.
The parts that make it OS X, though, are all high-level Objective-C classes and frameworks that ride atop Darwin. All of those parts could easily run on any OS. Be it Linux, NT, Be OS, or even Mac OS 9.2.2.
Native OS X apps use one of two APIs, Cocoa, which is an updated version of YellowBox (the NeXTStep/OpenStep API), and Carbon, which is an overhaul of the classic Mac OS API. Carbon can run natively on both OS 9 and OS X.
UNIX apps are much lower level, and are kinda primitive in comparison. UNIX apps cannot access Quartz (the display layer) or use Aqua (the UI and appearance). OS X doesn't include X11. It can be installed from Disc 3 of the OS X 10.3 CD, or downloaded from Apple, but I think it only runs on 10.3 now.
[ January 15, 2004: Message edited by: Jimmy don't give a shit about MS ]
idlepython3:
i'm a mac virgin myself, and those pics just make me envy you mac owners. only time i've used osx was once at a compusa, it was a mac dual g4 with that widescreen display they have. damn i wish m$ hadn't put me in their pocket already or else i'd go out and buy one right now.
hm_murdock:
sell your peecees!
WMD:
Hmmm...from looking at the screenshots here, I see some of KDE and XFCE for Linux. Who copied off of who? :D (read: i really don't know, when did the OSX look first show on Mac?)
hm_murdock:
1984.
The Mac OS X UI evolved mainly from the classic Mac OS.
You're gonna see all kinds of stuff.
But as for accurate, look at my screenie. It's in a nearly default state. The Dock at the bottom is an evolution of the NeXTStep Dock. The desktop is provided by the Finder, and it works pretty much the same way it has since 1984.
That shows a Finder window in Column view.
And that's a Finder window in Tree view. There's of course the good 'ol fashioned icon view as well. Finder is VERY different from other desktops, in that it's laid out so drastically differently.
The list of folders over on the left is the Sidebar. You can drop icons over there. Folders, Apps, documents. anything. It holds them kinda like a dock. Click on a folder and it opens in the current window. Drop something on a folder in the sidebar and the object you're dropping is copied or moved to the folder, based on what you want to do. Drop a document on an app icon and it opens in the app.
The sidebar can be closed up, and even turned completely off, along with the toolbar, by clicking that little widget in the top right of the window. Without the toolbar, Finder windows lose the brushed look. I kinda like it though.
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