Chapter 3. Lay of the Land

When you first log into Mac OS X, you see a user interface that is the end result of 20 years of development; quite a bit of work has gone into making it an elegant and usable interface for your computer. Underneath it all, however, Mac OS X is a structured environment based on Unix, and to truly master it, you'll need to know how it all fits together. This chapter discusses the architecture of Mac OS X: how the various layers work together to create what Apple calls the world's most advanced operating system.

This chapter also discusses how the filesystem in Mac OS X is organized and how to navigate through the system using the Finder and the Terminal. Each of these programs gives access to different layers of the system. For some tasks, the Finder is the best tool for the job. For others, using the Terminal is a way of life. Read on to find out which tool is best in various situations.