If you are a Windows guy, well looking at an Apple desktop make you wonder. Where is the start menu, where are the programs at and how do you add programs? The Apple platform is one of the has one of the simplest desktops around. The programs that come preinstalled are shown at the bottom called the Task Bar, which is sort of like Windows. Win10 is sort of like that too.
Now at the top of the screen you see the Menu Bar. It has the same features as a Windows type menu bar. Now on the desktop you should be able to see the drives connected into the system. In my case I 2 hard drives shown and you may not on yours. The common setup usually has 1 drive as mine is called Macintosh HD. This is the main drive for the Apple system. It contains all the software needed to run the Apple OpSystem. The current op system is called OS X or as in my case Mountain Lion. Apple likes to call their op systems by their pet names to distinguish them for older op systems. It is sort of like Window Vista, XP, Win 7, 8 and 10. Then there is Win 7.1, 8.5, 10... and so on. I like the Apple way better because all the op system is FREE!
Now in my case I have a second hard drive called Macintosh HD2. This is for Apple Mac Server software. This option gives you everything you need to run a website server. I decided to get this because of my past work on making websites and it is not required.
Now for the bad news first. If you are running a Windows based op system, and they come out with a new system, it's gonna cost some money. When I went from Windows NT to XP, XP to Win8, Win8 to Win8.1 it all costs for the upgrade. Lucky when I went from Win8.1 to Win10, I signed up for the free update. But to get Win8 to the level that Win10 needed for all features, I had to buy Win8.1 Pro update. This is the main reason I got tired of Windows and all these updates. Now once I got the Apple, the install for the op system was FREE! Then as they updated from the original OS X, all the updates are FREE! One thing I really liked about Apple is they have at least 2 conferences a year where they have presentations about the latest op system fixes and new features. Now being a newbie to Apple, this I thought is fantastic because they are concerned enough to tell fellow Apple users what to look for in the new updates. This covers all Apple platforms from the watch, phones, pads, tablets, laptops, computers and servers. So anybody that is interested, the info is there.
As for running programs, the task bar on the bottom has icons with their labels as the mouse pointer goes on them. These are the apps icons that come with the Apple system. Some of the given are Numbers (spreadsheet), Pages ( word processor ), Keynotes (presentation), Safari (browser) and so on. And to run them is you click on them, thats all! No menus, submenus, etc to go through. Now when apps are installed or run other apps, look for them on the Launchpad. This shows more pages of more apps icons that have been installed. Now to group icons you don't need subdirectories like Windows. You just drag and drop an icon on top of another icon, give it a group name and that is it! No more submenus and sub directories to look for. Just point and click, can't get any easier! Like music? You get music composing software called GarageBand. It makes learning music really simple while using a guitar and a midi keyboard. For me just starting out in music, it is a fantastic way to learn. Also all this is available on almost all the platforms. You learn once and it is the same for all. So that is just a start of the Apple process and it is the best. Now do you think that Apple computer is expensive? Which can be the more fun when using a computer? I'll let you be the judge! Next topic we'll get into the fun topic of development! Thanks for visiting.
Barry
