The Mac, as well crafted as it is, hides a lot of complexity under its hood. This is unavoidable given what it does. Much to Apple’s credit, the Mac works a lot smoother than most computers, but it’s still a complex beast underneath the Aqua interface. In a lot of ways, the Mac is similar to a smooth running car. There’s a set of well laid out controls, including a steering wheel, accelerator, and brake, but underneath the hood, it’s a bit more complicated than that. There’s system after system that works together to make it all happen.

This chapter shows you how to get under the hood and find out what kind of hardware, such as how much RAM and the kind of hard drives, is in your Mac. It also shows you how to view the software that is installed, how to watch the software running, and how to see what resources it is using. Finally, a couple of ways to remotely access your Mac are discussed to help you monitor and administer it from a distance.