Mac OS® X Leopard™ All‐in‐One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 1. Shaking Hands with Mac OS X

In This Chapter

• Understanding the advantages of Mac OS X

• Checking your system requirements

• Upgrading from earlier versions of Mac OS

• Installing Mac OS X

• Running Mac OS X for the first time

It's human nature to require instant gratification from your software. I've seen it countless times: Someone runs a program, immediately feels comfortable with it, and then spends the rest of his days using that program religiously. Or another person plays with the same program for 120 seconds and dismisses it as too difficult or too confusing. It's rather like watching a fancy fashion show runway in Rome or Paris: There had better be eye appeal pretty quickly, or the bucks won't flow.

Ditto for modern computer operating systems. An operating system is the basic software that determines the look and feel of your entire computer and usually extends to the programs that you run as well. Microsoft felt the pinch of an old‐fashioned operating system when Windows 98 and Windows Me were starting to appear rather plain‐looking. Then came Windows XP, where menus fade in and out like fireflies on a summer night, little puppies help you find files, and animation abounds. With the arrival of Windows Vista, Microsoft has attempted to match some of the elegance and power of Mac OS X in the PC world …but to be honest, updating a PC by upgrading to Windows Vista is a little like putting on a polyester sports coat over the same tired old leisure suit — most of what changes is on ...