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I’m a long-time windows user and an occasional Linux user who now finds himself using Mac OS X (10.6.6) on an iMac. Mostly it seems fairly intuitive, but I’m unclear about how programs are managed (installed, uninstalled, launched, terminated).
Some of the programs I install are downloaded in .dmg format, whereas others are in a familiar .zip or .tar.gz archive. If anyone knows of a good guide to managing applications on Mac OS X (and other info about the OS that would be useful for Mac noobs), please let me know.
Thanks!
Adium is a free and open source instant messaging application for Mac OS X. It can connect you to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services and then chat with other people using those services.
Daniel Beck♦
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2 Answers
dmg files are disk images, like a downloadable thumb drive or CD. You double-click them, they get mounted ('inserted'), and you can view their contents.
Applications either are distributed as an installer (very few, mostly big name software from Apple, Adobe, or system-related software such as VMware Fusion), or directly as application bundles.
You start installers by double-clicking, then follow the steps you’re presented. Applications are usually installed to /Applications.
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You ‘install’ application bundles by copying them to a convenient location (e.g. /Applications or ~/Applications) and that's it. This is what quite a few applications (e.g. Adium) relate to in their disk image design:
Open source, Linux and UNIX related applications are available via one of the unofficial package managers Fink, MacPorts and Homebrew. Which you use (or even none at all, if there’s no need) is up to you.
Since a few days ago, there’s also the Mac App Store, a concept that debuted on iPhone and iPad. It includes auto-update functionality, and very many applications are also available on there.
Uninstallation of software not installed using Mac App Store or one of the package managers is an ‘unsolved problem’. You can just delete the application bundle in /Applications or~/Applications` and be done. There's no 'registry' to keep clean, and the tiny personal preferences files don't hurt.
Some applications dump quite a bit of data in your ~/Library (especially Application Support) but there are solutions once disk space is tight. See the bottom of my answer regarding information what is stored where in your library folder, or this answer regarding a completely different topic, but might be helpful anyway.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t care much about that. I created my user profile back in 2005, moved it across three machines, and it still runs quite well. I had several hundred applications installed and uninstalled during that time period, and can’t complain about speed. As I said, there is no ‘registry’.
Some ‘applications’ (e.g. Witch mentioned further below) are actually preference panes (extensions to the System Preferences application), or widgets for your Dashboard. You usually recognize them by their icon. Simply install by double-clicking.
You launch/open applications by double-clicking them, or using open -a ApplicationName in the Terminal. They are located in /Applications or one of its subdirectories. Check the Finder's Go menu for keyboard shortcuts there.
You can dran applications to the Dock to keep them there (similar to pinning in Windows 7 task bar). Drag them off the Dock again to remove them. The Dock displays both ‘pinned’ and running applications, so dragging running applications off the Dock does not have an effect immediately.
You can also drag them to the Finder sidebar, to launch them from there, or to the Finder toolbar. There are other applications available, such as Overflow that attempt to help you launch applications.
A popular alternative is to use an application launcher like Quicksilver, Launchbar, or Alfred for launching applications.
You can quit any application by pressing Cmd-Q or selecting Quit in its application menu (the menu opened by clicking the application name in the menu bar). You can even quit them from the application switcher you get by pressing Cmd-Tab: Keep Cmd down to keep the switcher open, and press q -- the selected app will attempt to quit. Alternatively, you can quit applications by right-clicking or click-and-holding their Dock icon until a menu appears.
Frozen applications can be terminated in the same Dock menu by pressing Option and selecting the Force Quit menu item that appears. Alternatively, pressing Cmd-Option-Escape opens the Force Quit Applications window, where you also can quit frozen applications.
Some applications quit when you close their last window, but it doesn’t always make sense:
- why should a Mail application quit when you don’t want to view it, but it can notify you about incoming mail?
- Why should an editor or authoring tool that takes several seconds to launch quit, because you want to work on another document and you close the previous one?
Good to know:
Documents and applications are separate in Mac OS X: Any application runs only once (there are workarounds, such as the open command-line program), and each instance supports multiple documents. That's why the application switcher only displays applications, not documents. Use LightSwitchX or Witch if you don't like this.
For general information about using your new Mac, you can start by reading Mac 101 from Apple.
There are some books available, e.g. the ‘Missing Manual’ series. Just check out Amazon and read a few reviews.
TidBITS offers ebooks on select topics, e.g. backups, in their ‘Taking Control’ series.
This site has tons of information about Mac OS X, and quite a few users who are regulars on Mac-related topics. You could search this site specifically for some information, if you don’t want to read a book from cover to cover.
Some of Apple’s developer documentation might be interesting for users as well. This and this are guides for developers where to put their applications’ files.
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Daniel Beck♦Daniel Beck
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There is no central place to install or uninstall programs on Mac OS X. As Daniel Beck says, most applications come as what’s called a bundle. Although this looks like a program, and can be double-clicked, it’s actually a folder containing the program and all other resources it needs to run, so you can put them anywhere and they’ll still run happily, although, as Daniel says, /Applications is, by convention, where most people put theirs.
To launch programs just double click them in the Finder. To get quicker access to the applications you use the most, drag their icons onto the dock at the bottom of the screen — if you no longer want an application there, drag it off again, the icon will disappear in a puff of smoke (although the actual application will be there). You can also add files and folders to the right side of your dock — you might want to drag the /Applications folder there to provide access to most of your applications.
Most programs are terminated by the quit command, which should be the last item in the application menu (it has the same name as the application, and is always the second leftmost menu). The keyboard shortcut is [command]-q, and you can also quit programs by click and holding or [control]-clicking on their dock icon. Unlike Windows applications, Mac OS X applications can quite legitimately be running with no open windows, so closing all the windows doesn’t necessarily quit the application. If a program hangs or freezes, press [option]-[command]-[escape] to force-quit it.
Uninstalling applications is similarly easy to installing them. If the program came with an uninstaller, use it, however, most can just be dragged to the trash — remember that they’re actually a folder. Applications often install preferences and other sundries in ~/Library (usually ~/Library/Preferences/ and ~/Library/Application Support). If you want to be really thorough, you can go an delete these (or get a program that will do it automatically), but, unlike Windows registry keys, there are few downsides to just leaving these.
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Chances are that if you use a modern Mac system, especially a portable system, you will regularly be accessing at least one Wi-Fi network for connecting to the Web, email, and other on-line services.
If you use your system at more than one location, then you might regularly log into multiple Wi-Fi hotspots, be they private ones such as those at work, or public ones at cafes. Sometimes, at conventions or large workplaces, you might find yourself switching between different hotspots, depending on the signal strength available.
When you make these various connections, you might find various problems with Wi-Fi connectivity, where the system may prefer to use a hotspot with less signal strength than another one in the vicinity.
While there are various ways to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity, if you regularly access Wi-Fi hotspots you can help your system pick the appropriate ones through several means.
First, most Wi-Fi connections broadcast their networks publicly, so you can see the network name when choosing a Wi-Fi network to connect to; however, this is not always the case. If you know you are in the vicinity of a Wi-Fi connection but cannot see it, try manually entering its name and password. To do this, go to the Network system preferences and choose the Wi-Fi connection in the list of services. Then in the Network Name drop-down menu, choose ‘Join Other Network.’ This will bring up a dialogue box in which you can enter a network name, and choose an appropriate authentication scheme for supplying a password.
The second option for managing networks is to remove any that you do not use, or that you do not wish to use. While you can have a massive list of previously-joined networks and the system will only choose from available ones, there are some cases where you might have multiple available networks and the system may join one with a slow connection or one which is otherwise less desirable.
To force the system to choose only the desired one, you can either remove unwanted networks, or prioritize them. To do this, again go to the Network pane of System Preferences and choose the Wi-Fi connection, but this time click the ‘Advanced’ button.
In the Advanced options panel that drops down, select the Wi-Fi tab and you should see a list of preferred networks, which contains any network you have previously used. Now you can select one or more networks (hold the Shift or Command keys when clicking to choose more than one), and then click the minus button to delete them.
For prioritizing the networks, the system will select networks from those in this list, starting with the ones at the top. Therefore, by selecting a network and dragging it above another one in the list, you will be giving it priority. In this manner, you can locate the networks you connect to by name, and then select and drag them above others that might be connected to preferentially by the system.
When finished with these settings changes, click ‘OK’ and close System Preferences to save the changes.
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