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General Discussion

Greg Kitchin
Greg Kitchin
31,522 Points
Posted by Greg Kitchin
Greg Kitchin
31,522 Points

Learning your way around OS X

(Edited because I'm silly and tired) In the UK, Apple is not nearly as ubiquitous as it is in the US, though I have picked up a second-hand mac-book for uni and to have a laptop for coding and such on the go. However, OS X itself seems very, well, odd, compared to Windows. What resources do people recommend in regard to learning how the operating system works, how OS X handles files/folders, common tools, the terminal etc?

5 Answers

Shawn Denham
seal-mask
PLUS
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Shawn Denham
Python Development Techdegree Student 17,802 Points
Shawn Denham
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Shawn Denham
Python Development Techdegree Student 17,802 Points

If you are talking about the OS on the MacBook that is OS X, basically a proprietary Linux core wrapped in a proprietary GUI.

iOS is a completely different animal that runs on iPhone and iPads.

So are you wanting the learn about iOS that is on iPhone and iPads or OS X that is on Macs?

Luke Glazebrook
Luke Glazebrook
13,564 Points

OS X isn't exactly UNIX at it's core. OS X is just a 'UNIX-like' operating system so there are some differences between the two. They are incredibly similar though and if you are competent in OS X you are likely to be fine in Linux and vice versa.

Greg Kitchin
Greg Kitchin
31,522 Points
Greg Kitchin
Greg Kitchin
31,522 Points

Yeah, meant OS X. It's been one of those days (edited my original question).

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

Actually Luke Glazebrook and Greg Kitchin, OS X is UNIX these days.

Luke Glazebrook
Luke Glazebrook
13,564 Points
Luke Glazebrook
Luke Glazebrook
13,564 Points

Hi Greg!

iOS is actually Apple's mobile operating system! I know this can be confusing at first but Apple computers run OS X. In terms of learning about OS X I think you will learn the best just by rooting around and seeing how you could do things you have done in Windows, previously, on OS X.

Also, if you have ever used Linux before you will have a bit head start as there are a LOT of similarities between Ubuntu, for example, and OS X.

In terms of learning command-line tools I would just recommend following along with the Console Foundations Course right here on Treehouse. This should get you up and running with most of the things that you will be doing often in the terminal.

I hope that I managed to help you out! If you have any other questions then feel free to ask. I am sure you will pick it up fairly quickly though. I made the leap from Windows to OS X a few years ago and even after a couple of weeks I felt incredibly comfortable.

Marcus Klausen
Marcus Klausen
17,425 Points
Marcus Klausen
Marcus Klausen
17,425 Points

You compare Windows to iOS which is comparing a desktop OS (windows) to a mobile OS (iOS/iPhone). I'm gonna go ahead and assume you meant OS X which is the OS for Mac computers from Apple.

However my best suggestion is to play around with it just like you did when you started using windows. And of course it seems odd if you're used to another workflow. That's just like picking up a new car, it'll ride a little different!

Once again, play around with the folder structures and such to get comfortable.

Main differences is your menu bar is up top and for accessing options for current/active app. Dock is where you launch applications and open/minimize windows (not to be confused with spaces) - which can be set to minimize to the application icon itself or minimize to the right side next to the Downloads and Trash folders.

But I'm sure you already knew.

I'm happy to help if you have any specific questions though!

Michael Afanasiev
PLUS
Michael Afanasiev
Courses Plus Student 15,597 Points
Michael Afanasiev
Michael Afanasiev
Courses Plus Student 15,597 Points

Hi Greg,

If you're completely new to the OSX einvlorment (and it seems that you are) I strongly recommend watching some videos from this playlist to get comfortable with managing your files and folders.

And don't worry, soon enough you'll have that unixgasm.

Luke Glazebrook - OSX is UNIX! ;)

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

Ah crap, didn't see your answer before I commented above.

jason chan
jason chan
31,009 Points
jason chan
jason chan
31,009 Points

I have followed all the tutorials here perfectly fine on teamtreehouse with windows. Only emberjs doesn't work.

Rails fine, php fine, laravel fine, c# fine, javascript fine, python fine.

The only course that probably won't work for me is native os x applications and emberjs.

You can also install linux on your pc as work an environment. Linux is better because in the wild if you build application with any stack your going to deal with linux anyway.