Shoutbox

Hey everyone!

Well here I am, finally have an internet connection. For those who are wondering (which is.... no one) I'm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania now at Carnegie Mellon University (where i just learned will have a "Gates Building" in the next couple of years after a donation by Mr. Bill)

Anyhoo... I've got a large problem and that's my computer... I just got a mac and I never used one before... it's driving me nuts

I have several questions, first, if you can link me to sites with tutorials for OS X that would be awesome, I found a lot but most are either for NEW features or really simple... I need some type of user manual for OS X (which I'm surprised isn't offered with the computer but oh well)

I also have more specific questions...

I tried installing 3 programs and all 3 trials ended in a huge disaster...

1.

I installed Firefox (which is SLOOOOOOOOW and keeps crashing!?!?!?!?!) but now it's on the desktop as a removable drive and not under "applications" .... one word: wtf.... Now it even disapeared from the finder under HD (I tried dragging it into applications and its gone now)

2.

I installed Messenger for Mac... and well SAME THING!!! (except its still under HD)

3.

I forgot what else I installed but ill try to remember...

Oh and is there anything similar to add/remove programs on macs... I accidently installed an office demo...

Go in to finder, it should have the removable drives listed next to macintosh hd and network, there will be an eject button next to the firefox and msn messenger icons, click it and it will remove the drive

Alternatively you could click the icon on the desktop and drag it to the trash can, this is the same method as safely removing USB drives

edit: those drives contain the installation files, run them before you eject the drive

http://www.macosxhints.com is good i read that all the time.

OS X programs are normally in disk images, so you have to mount them and then copy the program off the mounted disk image into your Applications folder.

And no there isnt anything like add/remove programs, on a Mac you just delete the application file/folder, unless it came with an installer, in which case if you run it again it may have an uninstall option, but they don't always.

Any other questions then feel free to ask.

Ok so from what I understood the "drives" are just images of the install files... makes sense... but then...

Where is the program installed? Where can i find the file that runs them!? (not counting the dock)

yea its kinda a virtual disk once its mounted.  Then you copy the program whereever you want, into the Applications folder or wherever.

If you have a program in the dock, i *think* you can hold your mouse down on the icon in the dock and from the menu that pops up i think it says show in Finder, but im not exactly sure cos im not on a Mac atm

No it doesn't work... the thing is I have firefox and MSN on the dock but nowhere else... this is confusing

edit: ok i got this part u have to drag them from the disk thing....

I also cant delete .dmg files from the bin... thats where the programs came from its in the trash but it won't empty... why?

Im pretty sure they cant be just in the dock as the items in the dock are just aliases to the actual files.

When you say you cant elete the dmg images from the trash, does it give an error when u try emptying it or what?

Okay so you copied firefox or messenger mac into Hard Disk>Applications

And you created an alias to them on the desktop or dock or whatever?

Yeah they are on the HD and on the dock.

I have their "drives" on the desktop and i can't delete them, it says they are in use. And I have .dmg files in Trash where the "drives" came from which i can't empty...

Oh and is there no webcam on the mac messenger??????

unmount the drives first, that I don't know how to do though

and did you drag the entire program to the dock? you're only suppose to put it in applications then create an alias aren't you?