Living at home

As Mac OS X is a truly multi-user operating system, each user needs to have a private storage area. The operating system itself also needs a place to store settings, preferences and other information for each user. This area is appropriately named “home.” Each user has a home of their own, represented by a folder in Users folder. Each user’s home is named for the user, and each is protected from the prying eyes and fingers of the other users on the system. When you create or save documents, the documents are stored within the creating user’s home folder. When you make changes to your environment, or adjust settings influencing the behavior of your computer, the operating system stores the settings in your home as well. Figure 2-28 shows the home folders on a system. The currently logged in user’s home is represented by an icon that looks like a house. The inactive user’s homes are simply folders.

Figure 2-28: The home folders.

Each user’s home contains subfolders that are designed to help keep information sorted out by its purpose. Table 2-2 covers these sub-folders.

Table 2-2: Home Folder Contents

Name	Contents
Desktop	Contains all items on display on the desktop, with the exception of disks.
Documents	A catch-all folder where a user’s miscellaneous documents are stored by default.
Library	Contains application preferences, environmental settings, and other system elements unique to the user account. The settings in this Library are NOT system-wide. They only apply to this user.
Movies	The default save location for Apple’s iMovie application, and a convenient place to store any other movie files.
Music	The default location for the iTunes music library, and a convenient place to store any other music files.
Pictures	The default location for the iPhoto picture library, and a convenient place to store any other image files.
Public	The default location for a user to place items that are meant to be shared across the network or between user accounts. Sharing files between users is covered in Chapter 5.
Sites	The default location for Web sites that a user may want to save, and a convenient location to place created Web pages.

Note

Only the currently logged in user can access his or her home. This security measure is designed to keep users documents and settings separate. That said, there is a built-in method to share information with the other users on your system. The method of sharing is a one-way street though. You can give files to other users, and they can give files to you, but you cannot take files from each other. To learn more about sharing files between local users, tune in to Chapter 5.