The Software of Mac OS X
There are many different kinds of applications available for Mac OS X. As you’ll learn in Chapter 3, there are Carbon apps, Cocoa apps, native Unix programs, Java apps, the list goes on. Mac OS X is a very versatile operating system and it can run a variety of different programs. Most of that software breaks down into one of the following categories:
- Mac OS X GUI applications
These are software applications that are written using Cocoa, Carbon, or Java and run right in the Aqua user environment. Some examples include Microsoft Office, Apple’s iLife suite, Adobe Photoshop, and NetNewsWire.
- Classic GUI applications
Software that was written for Mac OS 9 and earlier. These apps run in the Classic environment, which is essentially Mac OS 9 running on top of Mac OS X. Most software written for older versions of the Mac OS has been Carbonized to run on Mac OS X. However, you might still have some stragglers that you need to use.
- Unix-based GUI applications
Applications that are written to use the X11 window system. While this book mostly discusses Unix as it pertains to the command-line environment, Unix has its own graphical user interface. The popular open source desktop environments KDE and GNOME have given a home to a plethora of free software apps with graphical interfaces, such as the GIMP and GAIM.
- Unix-based CLI applications
Daemons and utilities for use on the command line. This includes many parts of Mac OS X itself.
For most users, the majority of applications ...
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