Chapter 1: Shaking Hands with OS X

In This Chapter

Understanding the advantages of OS X

Checking your system requirements

Upgrading from earlier versions of Mac OS

Installing OS X

Running 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 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 (OS) 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 OS when Windows 98 and Windows Me (Millennium Edition) were starting to appear rather plain. Then came Windows XP, where menus fade in and out like fireflies on a summer night, puppies help you find files, and other animation abounds. With Windows Vista, 7, and now 8, Microsoft is attempting to match some of the elegance and power of OS X Mountain Lion (and its predecessor, OS X Lion) in the PC world; to be honest, though, upgrading a PC to Windows 7 is a little like putting on a polyester sports coat over the same tired old leisure suit because most of what changes is on the outside.

Apple doesn’t work that way. Sure, OS X looks doggone good. Forget the minimum requirement of shirt and shoes because this OS is wearing an Armani suit. What’s really exciting for Macintosh owners around the world, however, is the heart that beats beneath the pretty form. At its introduction, OS X was an OS revolution, and it still delivers some of the most advanced features available on a personal computer while remaining easy to use. (And yes, I do own, use, and enjoy both PCs and Macs — in the end, what’s important to me is which computer does the best job the fastest and easiest.)

Now, I’m not going to just haul off and proclaim that OS X can run rings around — well, you know, the W word — without solid proof. In this chapter, I introduce you to the advantages of OS X and why it’s such a step ahead for those running Windows. I also cover the hardware requirements for running OS X version 10.8 (Mountain Lion) as well as guidelines on switching from Windows. Finally, I familiarize you with the steps you encounter the first time you fire up the Big X.

Convince Me: Why OS X?

Apple was one of the first to pioneer the graphical approach to computing with the first Macintosh, so you’d expect OS X to be simple to use — and indeed it is. For many folks, that’s Job One. If you’re one of those people, you can happily skip this section without need of further evidence because OS X is undoubtedly the easiest OS on the planet to use. (And believe me, I’m not knocking simplicity. Computers are supposed to be getting easier to use, and technonerds like me are supposed to be rendered unnecessary as computers advance.) Here is the mantra of the Mac — and the first of Mark’s Maxims for this volume:

Make it easy.

Still with me? Need more testimony? Or perhaps you’re just curious about the engine under the hood. Then read on — and if you’re a Macintosh owner, feel free to gloat! (If you’re a PC owner, there’s always eBay.)

Pretty to behold

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me illustrate just how good OS X looks with a screenshot. Figure 1-1 offers you a view of the latest version of the Big X, hard at work. As you can see, everything’s streamlined in appearance, with maximum efficiency in mind. Tasteful 3-D abounds, from the drop-shadowed windows to the liquid-look toolbars. Icons look like miniature works of art. Macintosh owners appreciate outstanding design and recognize the value of a great computer, even if it’s lime green, or the size of a ham sandwich, or looks like a silver picture frame. After all, many Mac owners are professionals in the graphic arts, and Apple provides the hardware they need — like the top-of-the-line display used with the 27" flat-panel Intel iMac or the killer performance of the latest Mac Pro with 12-core processing power.

Take a look at what’s going on behind the curtain — the Great Oz is actually pretty busy back there.

The allure of Aqua

The Apple software developers who introduced us to OS X designed this “liquid” look from the ground up. They call it Aqua, and it’s Mountain Lion’s standard user interface.

Whoops, I just realized that I slipped a ten-cent example of technobabble into that previous paragraph. Let me explain: A user interface (UI) design determines how things look throughout both the OS itself and all applications written to run under it. This includes the buttons you click, the controls you click or move, and even the appearance of the windows and menus themselves. For example, if you’ve already begun to use OS X, you’ve probably stopped right in the middle of a task and exclaimed to yourself, “Why, Self, look at that cool 3-D contour effect on that menu bar!” That shapely contour is a tiny part of the Aqua user interface design.

Aqua also extends to the placement of controls and how they’re shown to you. For example:

OS X uses Aqua sheets (which are like dialogs, but are attached to their parent windows) to prompt you for input, such as confirming when you’re about to close a document without saving it. A dialog, on the other hand, can be moved around like a window, but it requires that you take an action before you can continue. I prefer sheets to dialogs because multiple programs can have multiple sheets open, so you can continue to work in other applications without being rudely forced to answer the query immediately. Like other things OS X, sheets just make more sense, and they’re easier to use!

OS X file selection controls, such as the one in Figure 1-2, make it much easier to navigate quickly to a specific file or folder from within an application.

The Dock is another Aqua favorite. The Dock launches your favorite applications, indicates what’s running on your Mac, and allows you to switch between those programs — and all in a strip that you can relocate and customize at will. I talk about the Dock in greater detail in Book II, Chapter 2.

Consider Aqua as the look-and-feel of OS X and virtually all applications that it runs; you discover how to use these Aqua controls in the pages to come. Of course, Mac owners really don’t have to worry about Aqua itself; the Aqua guidelines are a road map for those software developers writing applications for OS X. Programs written to the common Aqua interface standard will be easier for you to use, and you’ll become a proficient power user of that program much faster.

The quality of Quartz

The second ingredient in the visual feast that is OS X is Quartz Extreme. Again, I must ask your forgiveness, good reader, because I have to get a tad technical again. Quartz Extreme is a graphics engine: the portion of OS X that draws what you see onscreen (in the Aqua interface, natch). Think of the engine in your car, which is responsible for making your car move. Whether your Mac is running Microsoft Word or simply idling at the Desktop waiting for you to finish your soda, Quartz Extreme is at work displaying icons, drawing shapes, exhibiting the windows you open, and animating things on the Dock.

What sets Quartz Extreme apart from the ho-hum graphics engine that Windows uses? It’s all about international programming standards — you know, those things that Microsoft would much rather you forget. To wit:

PDF: The Quartz Extreme engine is built around the Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) developed by Adobe. If you’ve spent any time at all on the Internet in the past 15 or so years, you know that PDF files have emerged as the standard for displaying and printing the highest-quality electronic documents. Plus, Adobe has released a version of the free Acrobat Reader (www.adobe.com ) for just about every computer on this green Earth. This means that text and graphics displayed in Quartz Extreme are razor sharp, resizable, and easily portable from one computer to another. In fact, OS X displays PDF files without even requiring Acrobat, using the built-in Preview application and Quick Look. Figure 1-3 shows a complex PDF document that I opened in OS X.

OpenGL: Gamers will get really excited about this one: Quartz Extreme also uses the OpenGL graphics acceleration standard, which delivers the fastest 3-D graphics on the planet. (Think photo-realistic, high-resolution graphics drawn in the blink of an eye.) In fact — and this is a really cool trick — OpenGL is even used to produce the Desktop in OS X Mountain Lion.

In plain English, that means that today’s top-of-the-line, 3-D gaming and 3-D graphics acceleration can take care of drawing everything; forget about waiting for windows to close or menus to appear even when you’re creating the world’s biggest honking spreadsheet or building a presentation the size of Baltimore. As the Chairman of the Board would’ve said, “We’re talkin’ fast, baby, like a rocket ship to the moon!”

Core Animation: Mountain Lion includes functionality that Apple calls Core Animation, which makes it much easier for programmers to animate backgrounds and objects within their programs. Text, 3-D animation, and video now work seamlessly side by side, and eye-catching animations within applications, such as Time Machine, are the norm for Mac owners.

Stable, stable, stable

“So it’s elegant in design. That’s great, Mark, but what if OS X crashes? Aqua and Quartz Extreme aren’t worth a plug nickel if my cursor doesn’t move and I lose my document!” Believe me, I couldn’t agree more; I make my living from computers, and every time a misbehaving program locks up one of my machines, I throw a tantrum that would make Godzilla back off. Lockups shouldn’t be tolerated in this day and age.

Luckily, the folks who designed OS X were just as interested in producing a rock-solid OS as they were in designing an attractive look. (Think of Tom Cruise’s face on The Rock’s body.)

OS X is as hard to crash as the legendary Unix OS — that’s right, the same reliable workhorse that technowizards around the world use to power the Internet, where stability is all-important. In fact, OS X is actually built on top of a Unix base. It’s just well hidden underneath, allowing you and me to focus on our programs and click with a mouse without knowing any of those obscure, arcane keyboard commands. You get the benefits of Unix without a pair of suspenders, a pocket protector, or the hassle of growing a beard. (Not to mention many, many years of computer programming experience.)

In fact, Apple has gone yet another step further in safeguarding your data in case of a power failure or misbehaving program: Mountain Lion’s Auto Save feature automatically saves all the changes you make to your document in the background while you work! You can revert to the document as it was when you last opened it whenever you need to. (I know one technology author who is downright thankful for Auto Save.)

Apple calls the Unix foundation at the heart of OS X by another nifty title: Darwin. I could tell you that Darwin provides the latest in 64-bit memory support and CPU management, but if you’re a normal human being, your eyes will glaze over. Suffice it to say that Darwin makes the best use of your computer’s memory (RAM) and your computer’s brain (CPU) — Mountain Lion has been fine-tuned for processors with multiple cores, such as the Core i5, Core i7, and Xeon CPUs from Intel. Rest assured that your web server will stay up even if your misbehaving Virtual Birdcalling simulation decides to run amok. (Emus running amok — how dreadful.)

Yes, yet another standard is at work here — uh-oh, Overlord Gates is truly angry now! For those who do have a beard and are curious about such things, Darwin uses a FreeBSD kernel, so it also inherits all the protocol standards that have made Unix the foundation of today’s Internet. You can find more about FreeBSD at www.freebsd.org . Because OS X is developed as an open source project, software engineers outside Apple can actually contribute ideas and code, just as Unix continues to evolve over time. (And yes, you’ll even discover how to access the powerful Unix command prompt from OS X in Book VIII, Chapter 2!)

To get an idea of just how well armored OS X is, consider Figure 1-4. See how one program, which I call Titanic 1.0, has locked up like San Quentin. Under Mac OS 9 and older versions of Windows, your only chance at recovering anything would involve divine intervention. However, in OS X, my Pages application is unaffected because it has a completely protected area of system memory to play in. (I show you how to force a misbehaving application to go away in Chapter 3 of this minibook.)

By the way, Darwin makes it easy for Unix software developers to quickly and easily port (or modify) all sorts of Unix applications to work under OS X. I think you’ll agree that a wider selection of applications is a good thing.

Multitasking and multithreading for normal human beings

And now, for your entertainment, a short one-act play. (Yes, really. You’d be amazed at how popular this stage production has become among my readers.)

A Shakespearean Moment of Multitasking and Multithreading

Our play opens with Julius Caesar shaking his head in disgust at his Mac OS 9 Desktop.

Caesar: Anon, I am only one mortal, yet my Desktop doth abound with portals to applications of all different mien. Tell me, foul beast, why thy spirit seems slow and sluggish, and my Excel spreadsheet doth crawl on its belly!

[Enter Romeo, a cocky and rather brash young Apple software developer.]

Romeo: Dude, the problem is, like, your operating system. Y’see, older versions of both Mac OS and Windows ended up constantly, like, shifting your computer’s attention from one app to another — Excel has to cooperate with everything else that’s running in the background, like a good little corporate boy. It’s less efficient and very, very ’90s. Install OS X, and you get preemptive multitasking — the app you’re actually using, like, gets the lion’s share of the processing time, and everything runs smoother when you need it. That’s the way Unix works.

Caesar: Verily, your strange tongue doth annoy me. Guards, behead him — then obtain for me this OS X.

Romeo: I’m outta here — I’ve got a hot date — but don’t forget, like, OS X also uses multithreaded processing, so your Mac can handle different operating system tasks at the same time. It’s kind of like your computer can both walk and chew gum at the same time: fast, fast, fast!

[Exit Romeo — rather swiftly — stage right.]

Fin

When the play closes, we can only hope that Romeo is fast as well. (I told you it was a short play.)

The definition of Internet savvy

Remember the classic iMac advertisements that touted the one-plug approach to the Internet? That entire campaign was centered on one idea: that the Internet was supposed to be easy to use. The folks at Microsoft sat up and took notice when the iMac proved so incredibly successful and (starting with Windows Vista) actually reduced some of the overwhelming folderol that you had to encounter just to connect to the Internet — but OS X still wipes the floor with Windows 7 when it comes to easy and complete Internet connectivity. For example:

Easy configuration: OS X sets up your entire Internet connection with a simple wizard. As long as you’ve got the right information handy (which your Internet service provider [ISP] should supply), it’s a snap to set up.

iCloud: Apple’s iCloud service provides you with a chunk of Internet-accessible space where you can automatically share documents, photos, and music with your other Apple devices and computers — from anywhere on Earth with an Internet connection! Absolutely, unbelievably, massively cool. I cover iCloud in detail in Book V, Chapter 4.

All the Internet behind-the-scenes stuff: The Internet is basically built on a number of protocols (read that as rules for exchanging all sorts of data) — and, as I mention earlier, Unix machines dominate the Internet. Ergo, OS X on your Macintosh also provides you with support for just about every Internet protocol on the planet. Even if you don’t know them by name or write your own software, the applications that you buy can use them.

A gaggle of great Internet applications: OS X ships with all sorts of Internet magic built in. For example, you’ll get instant Internet and local network communication with Messages and the FaceTime video chat application (both of which I cover in Book V, Chapter 3), Safari (covered in Book V, Chapter 5), and Apple Mail, a standard-issue, battle-ready e-mail program (which I discuss in Book V, Chapter 2). Yup, it’s all free.

Lots of free goodies

You don’t just get Internet applications when you latch your fingers onto OS X — you can start doing all sorts of neat stuff without investing one extra dollar in more software!

What you receive along with OS X depends on whether you’re upgrading from an older version of Mac OS or receiving the Big X already installed on a new Macintosh. With that in mind, check out these two “suite” possibilities (pun definitely intended):

This is the iLife: This suite of easy-to-use integrated programs is included with a new Mac, and it’s practically as well known as the computer itself these days: iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBand, and iMovie. Each of these stellar programs is covered in Book III. If you’ve got a digital camera, an MP3 player, a USB musical keyboard, or a DV camcorder, you’ll be a very happy individual. I promise.

iWork to the rescue: If you bought a new Macintosh with OS X preinstalled, you may have received a test-drive version of iWork (Apple’s answer to Microsoft Office). Good stuff, indeed. If you don’t want to spend the bucks on Office 2011, and you don’t need the complex gewgaws and baroque architecture of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, I can guarantee you that Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are powerful enough to satisfy your document and presentation yearnings.

What Do I Really Need to Run the Big X?

I’ve written well over a dozen other For Dummies books — I know, it’s getting to be a habit (and a career) — and I always find the “Hardware Requirements” section a hard one to write. Why? Well, I know what Apple claims as the minimum hardware requirements necessary to run OS X. But, on the other hand, I know what I would consider the minimum hardware requirements, and they’re substantially different. Oh, well, let me list the bare bones, and then I’ll give you my take on what you really need. (Naturally, if OS X Mountain Lion is preinstalled on your computer, feel free to tear out this page and create a handful of celebratory confetti.)

From The World According to Apple, the minimum requirements are as follows:

Hardware: You’ll need any Mac with a 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7, or Xeon processor. This means that just about any recent desktop or laptop Mac is technically eligible to play (although you might find the performance of a Core 2 Duo Mac running Mountain Lion to be unacceptable). Note that no DVD drive is required for installation — you’ll download your Mountain Lion upgrade directly from the Apple App Store! However, your Mac must already be running OS X Lion (10.7).

RAM: You’ll need at least 2GB of memory (RAM). At today’s low prices, that’s like buying a pizza.

Hard drive territory: Although svelte by Windows standards, OS X still needs about 8GB of free space on your hard drive.

From The World According to Chambers, the minimum requirements are

Hardware: I recommend a Mac with at least an Intel i3 processor. Remember, this is my take on what you’ll need to really take advantage of OS X Mountain Lion, and again, I have to say that I don’t think it performs well enough on Intel Core 2 Duo computers.

RAM: Don’t settle for anything less than 4GB. Again, with memory as cheap as it is these days, this is like adding extra cheese to that pizza.

Time for a Mark’s Maxim:

Any technonerd worth the title will tell you that the single most important key to performance in today’s operating systems is RAM — yep, it’s actually more effective than a faster processor!

If you find some extra spending cash between your sofa cushions, spend it on RAM (up to an Earth-shaking 64GB of RAM on the latest Mac Pro racehorses).

Hard drive territory: I recommend having

• 20GB free for just the OS

• A minimum of an additional 60–100GB for any applications, digital video clips, photographs, and songs you’ll be collecting

Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Mac OS

Because you install OS X Mountain Lion through the Apple App Store, there’s not much to tell. The steps that you should take before you start the installation are important; I cover those in the next section. Pay heed, or pay later. I won’t go into detail about the actual installation because there really aren’t any details to speak of — you’ll answer a question or two and then hop up to get another cup of coffee or another caffeine-laden soda while the installer does the rest. Would anyone expect any different from Apple?

But before you strike up the band, read the following sections to protect yourself against some common pitfalls.

Back up! — Please, back up!

I know you’re anxious to join the In crowd, and Apple makes the upgrade process as noninvasive and as safe as possible, but snafus such as power loss and hard drive failures do happen. With a full backup of your system to an external hard drive, using Time Machine, you can rest assured that you’ll get your precious files and folders back in pristine shape if tragedy strikes. To be honest, you need to back up your system on a regular basis, anyway. Promise me now that you’ll back up your system, won’t you?

Snuff out disk errors

Before you upgrade, I recommend that you check that hard drive for errors one last time because upgrading a disk with directory errors takes longer. To give your drive a clean bill of health, use Disk Utility, which I cover in Chapter 9 of this minibook. Ain’t technology grand?

Plug it, road warrior

You’re on the road with your MacBook Pro, and you’re thinking of buying your brand-spanking-new Mountain Lion OS upgrade — Stop! NOW.

Before you decide to upgrade your Mac notebook, consider what will happen if that magical vessel containing all your files should flicker and. . . . No, on second thought, don’t even visualize it. (Even if the battery is fully charged.) If you’re installing an OS X upgrade on a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, make sure that it’s plugged in and receiving its share of good, clean AC power from a handy, nearby wall socket. The installation process could take an hour, and you can expect constant hard drive activity — think “Attack of the Energy-Draining Installation from Planet Lithium.” You don’t want to try this while your notebook is operating on battery power.

Heck, a technopurist would probably recommend that you attach your Macintosh to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for the installation process, but I’m not quite that paranoid about power outages.

Keep one thing in mind while installing OS X: If you format the destination drive (the drive where you’ll install OS X), you’ll lose everything that it stored. No big surprise — and the installation program will warn you profusely about this beforehand. There’s really no reason to do so unless you just crave a clean installation (an installation of a new OS on a newly formatted drive, compared with an upgrade of your existing OS X System files). Oh, and don’t forget to use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format when prompted by the OS X install application.

What’s that, you say? You’d like a comprehensive guide to your classy new Apple MacBook Air or MacBook Pro laptop? Look no farther than the third edition of my bestselling MacBook For Dummies, published in both print and electronic format by the good folks at Wiley. With a copy in hand, any road warrior will find the answers to those Persistent Laptop Questions!

Personalizing the Big X

After the installation is complete and you rebooted the beast, stand back and watch those beautiful rounded edges, brushed stainless-steel surfaces, and liquid colors appear. But wait — you’re not quite done yet! OS X needs to be personalized for you, just like your toothbrush or your SUV’s six-way power seat. And to the rescue is Setup Assistant, which automatically appears the first time you boot OS X Mountain Lion.

These assistant screens change periodically — and they’re completely self-explanatory — so I won’t march you through each one step by step. However, here are a few tips for a bit of additional over-the-shoulder help while you’re setting things up.

Set the language. OS X defaults to U.S. formats and keyboard layouts. OS X does indeed provide full support for other languages and keyboard configurations, though. To display these options, click the Show All button at the bottom of the assistant screen.

Accounts are important. When OS X asks you to create your account, don’t forget to set your password. Your Mac password, by the way, is case sensitive, so THIS is different from this or ThiS. I recommend entering a password hint; just don’t make that hint too easy to guess. For example, My first dog’s name is probably preferable to Plays Seinfeld on TV. OS X uses the name and password that you enter to create your account, which you use to log in if you set up a multiuser system for several people (more on this in Book II, Chapter 4).

Never write down your passwords. Such crib sheets work just as well for others as for you.

I need to fix that. You can click the Back button at any time to return to previous assistant screens. OS X, being the bright child that it is, automatically saves your choices for you, so when you click Continue to return, everything is as you left it.

Opt for extra stuff. Whether you accept the news, offers, and related-product information from Apple is your decision. However, it’s only right that I point out that you can find this same information on the Apple website, so there’s no need to engorge your e-mail Inbox unless you so desire. (In other words, I turned this off.)

Set local area network (LAN) connections. If you’re connecting your Mac to a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network (or you’re using an Internet router that uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol [DHCP]), I recommend clicking Yes when you’re asked whether you should use the configuration supplied by the existing server.

DHCP automatically provides the computers on the network with all the settings that they need to connect. If that sounds like ancient Sumerian, find out more in Book VI, Chapter 1.

Create your iCloud account. Apple’s iCloud service just plain rocks — especially the free storage. Again, more on this in Book V, Chapter 4, but take my word for it: Join up, trooper, and create your Apple ID during setup. The standard iCloud service is free, and upgrading to additional space is a breeze if you decide you like the service benefits.

Have your Mail settings handy. If you set up your iCloud account, you can set up your @me.com address without any bother — again, this is a good thing. Mountain Lion will also try to configure your existing accounts automatically. However, if you’re setting up an existing account, make sure you have all those silly settings and numbers and names that your ISP supplied you with when you signed up. (Just in case.) This stuff includes your e-mail address, mail server variety, user account ID, password, and outgoing mail server.