by Chris Biagini
It's Mac Oh Ess Ten First things first. Put simply, Mac OS X is is absolutely beautiful.
Window edges and drop shadows are smooth and polished. Icons are photorealistic. Buttons and scrollbars look like gobs of translucent gel. Text is smooth and pristine. Menus are ever-so-slightly transparent. On all counts, it's a stunning user interface.
Before we go any further, let's get you acquainted with some of what you're looking at in that screenshot. By default, the OS X Dock lives by default at the bottom of the screen, although you can place it along the right or left screen edges, as well. The Dock is what you use to switch between open applications, as well as store shortcuts to any applications you frequently use. At the top of the screen is the ever-present Menu Bar. The Menu Bar holds commands that are relevant to the application you're currently working in, as well as some useful information and the system-wide Apple menu. But so much for the basics we'll go into more detail about how these work a little later. For now, we'll work on clearing up some of those myths.
They're only good for Photoshop Depending on who you've been listening to, odds are you've inadvertently acquired some serious misconceptions about Macs. Before we delve into what makes a Mac a Mac, let's deal with those misconceptions and set the record straight.
This first one is the easiest to dismiss. At last count, there were ten thousand applications native to OS X. That's a staggering figure, and your choices are anything but limited. All of the PC staples Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Halo, and yes, even Photoshop are available on the Macintosh. There is also a slew of Mac-only apps that I think are vastly superior to their Windows counterparts. ...
