OSX is the new operating system from Apple. While it has many excellent features (among them the virtual elimination of system crashes and reboots), the interface is very different from the old "classic" environment. We expect that average users will need up to several weeks to feel comfortable with the system.
Before summer 2003, all computers from Apple had the ability to boot into either operating system (9 or X). That is no longer on option. New Macs will boot into OSX only, however they will still run older OS9 applications by having an OS9 as a background application.
The Dock
The dock is the bar on the lower screen that contains helpful links to frequently used applications, system settings and folders. There is a vertical bar in the dock which separates applications (on the left) from files, folders, and shortcuts on the right. To add an item, drag the application, file or folder to the dock and it will make space for the new icon. To remove items, drag them off the dock.
Organization and Navigation
You will still have the familiar hard drive icon on the desktop. OS X applications will be in the "Applications" folder, while older OS9 applications will be in the "Applications OS 9" folder. Your data files will be in the "Documents" or "Files" folder, for which there are shortcuts on the desktop. To search on your hard drive, use File menu : Find.
Windows now have red, yellow, and green buttons. Red closes the windows but doesn't quit the program. Yellow puts the window in the dock. Green maximizes the window to fit the screen. When a program is running, there will be a black triangle next to its icon in the dock. To quit a program, you must select Quit from the program menu. Note: the Finder (smiling Mac face) will always have a triangle as it is always running.
System Settings (Chooser, Control Panels)
The Chooser no longer exists. To add a printer you use the Print Center program, which has an icon in the dock (looks like a printer). To connect to an Appletalk fileshare, click on the Finder icon in the dock and do Go menu: Connect to server.
Control Panels are now called System Preferences. There is an icon in the dock (a light switch next to a gray apple). You can adjust thing like the desktop picture (Desktop) and the dock size (Dock) and the screen saver (Screen Effects). To adjust the view settings (how a windows lists items for example), click on the Finder icon in the dock and and do View menu: View options.
Application Preferences
Preferences used to be under the Tools menu: Options or the Edit menu: Preferences. Now you access them from Program name: Preferences. For example, in Microsoft Word the first menu will be Word and under that is Preferences.
Admin Password / Installing Software
OS X is similar to Windows 2000 and XP in that when you are using the computer you are "logged in" to a local account. The default account is the Williams user account (often shortened to williamsuser). There is no password for this account (unless you set one), so when prompted leave the password field blank and just hit return.
Logging In (Novell NetWare)
You can now connect directly to our Netware servers without using the old Netware Client, and in fact this is the preferred method. To do so, from your desktop menu: Go: Connect to Server: hector.williams.edu (or helen.williams.edu or achilles.williams.edu). Log in with your network username and password. After the volume mounts on your desktop you can make an alias of it for quicker access in the future.
Problems with older OS9 documents (error -50)
With OS9 you could use practically any character in a filename e.g. "My Updated Thesis 9/29/01(finally!*^&@).doc". OSX, being based on UNIX, does not allow forward slashes (the / below the ? on the keyboard) in particular. This is also true for all Windows operating systems. However, if you moved files with a / in the name from an OS9 computer to an OSX computer you would not get a warning and in fact those / files would open and read fine. The problem is that you could not move them to any Netware servers (Helen, Hector, Achilles). It would be a good idea, as you find documents with a / in the name, to rename them to have either a backwards slash \ or a hypen - both of which are acceptable..
