Mac OS X Unleashed

Mac OS X Unleashed

By John Ray and William C. Ray

Unix-Based Mac OS

If you're not familiar with Unix, you've probably heard and read enough to have developed any number of preconceptions regarding what using it will be like. Almost all of them are probably at least a bit intimidating. You've probably heard that Unix commands are cryptic and that the learning curve is steep. Even worse, it uses a command-line interface—you've actually got to type at the thing to tell it what to do, and we all know how archaic that mode of controlling a machine is.

It might be archaic, but that does not mean that there's anything wrong with it or that it's not the best way to accomplish certain tasks. We know, many of you have been poking fun at that other OS for years because its unfortunate users had to type to make it work—don't worry, we've laughed, too. You're just going to have to screw up your courage and admit that you've used the keyboard in the Mac OS Finder to do things such as jump a Finder window to a file with a particular name. The mouse is a wonderful tool for doing things where the brain's visual processing machinery can come into play. The keyboard is also a powerful tool for other types of interaction, and it would be silly to intentionally restrict yourself to only one type of interface when you have other complementary interfaces available. In many ways, what Apple has given you is analogous to being provided with a high-end sports car, and a fully equipped machine shop and garage to work on it. If buzzing around in the fancy car is your pleasure, you are free to do so without ever opening the hood. On the other hand, if you feel like working on the engine, all the tools are there for you to allow you to further customize and enhance your ride to your heart's content.

Regardless of what you've heard, the idea that learning and using Unix will be fun and rewarding is likely to be farthest from your mind. We hope that in this and upcoming chapters, we'll be able to convince you differently. If we can't, don't worry. There's nothing about Mac OS X that requires you to learn and use anything other than the graphical interface that we've already covered. You can live with your Mac OS X machine, use it for the same type of applications you always have, and love it in all its "nontypishness," without ever having to learn any of this Unix stuff. However, if you want to learn how to make your machine even more powerful, make yourself more productive, customize everything to an exquisite extent, give this command line stuff a try.

Caution

Having just told you that we think you'll like the Unix side of your machine if you give it a fair chance, and encouraged you to try it out, we'll turn around and caution you about its use. Unix is not for everyone. Although we'd love to see every Macintosh user graduate to the power available in the BSD subsystem, we can't avoid the reality that Unix is more complicated and powerful than some users will ever want to use. Just as some of us are safer not owning super-fast sports cars, some are less a threat to ourselves and others if we don't have a big box of firecrackers, and some would be better off if we couldn't buy donuts by the dozen, Unix is just too much for some people. It might be too much power, or too much flexibility, or too much information to remember, but Unix seems specially designed to create a user who epitomizes the phrase knows just enough to be dangerous.

Evaluate your needs honestly. We're firmly convinced that everyone can learn Unix, and everyone can use it safely, but the reality is that not everyone will. If you're hesitant about trying out the Unix side of your new OS because you think it might be too difficult, we suggest that you give it a try because we think we can convince you that it's not as tough as you think. If you're not sure that Unix is a good match for what you do, you might be right: It might be better if you use OS X as the super stable, more flexible OS on which to run your GUI-based programs, and leave the BSD subsystem alone.

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