New to MAC OS - Need Help on Learning

[coolchap]

Hi Experts,

Finally, I have ordered used Macbook Pro 13" 2015 Model on eBay, hope it's in good condition/well maintained.
So, I am being thought to switch to MAC OS for a long time as I fed up with Windows OS.
I am being a Software Developer, I am very good at Unix and Linux systems and heard the mac OS is Unix based OS(correct me if am wrong).

I need your valuable suggestions/recommendations how to start learning the MAC OS being Unix Person, whether it adds any advantage on learning? does mac OS has Terminal like Unix/Linux to run Unix-like commands and perform automation using shell script etc.,?

Do I need to rely on GUI on Mac OS like windows or I can do many things in Terminal using Unix-like commands?

What is the best to start with learning MAC OS? Please share your thoughts, it would be much helpful.

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[leman]

On its core, OS X is a heavily modified fork of FreeBSD with some custom systems on top. It offers some of the best automation facilities of any contemporary customer OS I am aware of (with launchd, Automator and system-wide scriptability via AppleScript or EcmaScript). Also, the integration of Terminal and UI in OS X is exemplary, with commands that allow you to seamlessly switch between command-line and Finder, control the clipboard as well as start apps. Some pointers to start out:

- read the manpages of launchd and open
- check out http://brew.sh — a very nice package manager for OS X
- I would recommend you the book "Mac OS X and iOS Internals: To the Apple's Core" by J. Levin, it provides some very nice overview of the system and its components
- read through the Apple's developer documentation, they have some very detailed technotes about the low-level details of the system (e.g. kernel subsystems etc)
- ...and of course, you always can look at OS X base OS source code https://opensource.apple.com

P.S. My favourite command-line tool is 'say'. So many possibilities...

 

[Fishrrman]

David Pogue's books may be of help.

Check amazon.com.
Best way to buy is check the "used" category, pick up a used copy, and save $$$.

 

[simonmet]

it sounds like you're going to love Mac! It's the best Unix OS as far as I'm concerned. It's not just Unix-like, it is a certified Unix-fork, unlike Linux.

You can live in Terminal (the command line) if you want or ignore it like most people and use Apple's GUI exclusively; the choice is entirely up to you!

But there's plenty of stuff you can do in Terminal that isn't in the GUI or is otherwise easier. I most frequently use find in Terminal and not the GUI.

One minor word of caution is to be aware that, being a Unix OS, Mac uses Unix line endings as opposed to the Microsoft ones. So be wary of running a script in Terminal that was made in Windows without converting the file or copying your script over in a text editor.

You can convert them in XCode, with any text or stream editor that has regular expression support, or simply copying over your work into a new plain-text TextEdit document (or text editor in Terminal) which defaults to the standard Unix line endings. TextEdit recognises the Windows ones when you open a Windows-created file so all you have to do is copy and paste the contents into a new file.

Windows doesn't return the favour (they prefer to pretend they're the only OS) which is why if you try to open a file created in TextEdit or Terminal on the Mac in Notepad on Windows the line endings aren't recognised and you get a one-line file.