Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger

Preface

Odds are good that you’re already running Mac OS X (that’s “oh-ess ten,” not “oh-ess ex,” by the way) and have been for a while. In fact, if you’ve purchased new Apple hardware in the last few years, you haven’t had a choice but to jump into this new world of operating systems. If you’re like most people, there was a bit of psychic jarring when you left the familiar Mac OS 9 behind; Mac OS X is a remarkable achievement—fast, stable, and very powerful—so the transition has been most worthwhile.

On a daily basis, the major change in Mac OS X is the graphical interface, known as Aqua, which has new buttons, a new appearance, and even an entirely different multiuser architecture that was never before a core part of the Mac OS. What you might not have realized, however, is that it was the underpinnings of the operating system that changed the most in the update to Mac OS X, and that you now have a tremendously powerful OS that can run thousands of open source applications downloaded free from the Net and a command-line interface that makes even the most complex task a breeze. Tasks that Windows users wouldn’t even dream of attempting and that old Mac users would be allocating hours or even days to accomplish.

If you want to learn the key phrases, beneath Mac OS X lies an operating system called Unix (pronounced “you-nicks”), specifically UC Berkeley’s BSD Unix and the Mach kernel, a multiuser, multitasking operating system. Being multiuser means Mac OS X allows multiple users to ...