1. I set up the mail app to receive from both of my email accounts (regular ISP and mac.com), but I can't send mail from the mac.com account.
Sorry, it's a limitation on mail.app. I'd recommend SweetMail (find it on versiontracker.com) as a Carbonized mail program that can handle multiple accounts inbound and outbound. I'm not sure if mail.app will be changed in OS X 1.0.
2. How safe is it to rearrange the folders and files? I'm the only user, so I want to dump some of the useless folders
In full agreement with Ron, don't do it! More than likely they aren't worthless, and may actually be system-related. Can you give us examples of some of the folders you were thinking about?
3. Is the Quicktime 5 preview compatible with OSX?
I agree with Ron, but the rumor mill has it that QT5 will ship with OS X 1.0 early next year.
4. I can't seem to change the icon of my OSX partition, are the steps different than the "classic" MacOS, or is it just locked in some way?
Since you stated you were a beginner at UNIX, the safest way to do this is to probably reboot in OS 9, and paste your icon from there. You can also (according to Apple, but I've never tried it) rename the OS X hard drive there. I'll cover
root in a very generic definition way at the end of this note.
5. Is there any way I can guage apps' RAM usage like OS9's "About.." window?
In slight disagreement with Ron, there is a graphical way of seeing what your machine is up to. Go to the Applications folder, then Utilities (I think; my OS X box is turned off right now). Look for a program called ProcessViewer. Launch it, and you'll see a list of all processes, and how much RAM and CPU time they are taking up. You'll be surprised at how many things are actually going on, and the language isn't completely clear. For example, any Classic apps do not show up in the list with their names, just "CFMsomethingoranother". But it does show basically what you're looking for.
6. [skipped; Ron covered it perfectly!]
7. I haven't paid much attention to the issue lately, but are there any beta drivers/hacks for USB Epson printers out there?
The only hack I'm aware of is for HP Deskjet printers, and it involves installing a component into the OS, which is probably not the best of things for a newcomer to OS X to be doing :-).
8. And finally, the most important: Anyone know of some cool OSX-themed desktop pics (besides those at MacDesktops.com)?
There are some very cool ones at:
http://www.macakio.com/
As for menubar clocks, JetClock is one, and PTHClock is another. I think there's at least one more; search in OS X on VersionTracker for "clock" and see what you find!
OK, about
root. If you have absolutely no UNIX experience, I'd recommend learning some before trying much of anything as
root. There are a number of good online tutorials at various spots (try "+bsd +tutorial" at Altavista or Yahoo). Personally, I used a book called "Teach yourself UNIX in 24 hours," which I found easy to follow and well laid out. However, it's focused on a normal user's perspective of UNIX, and doesn't cover the
root account in any sort of detail.
I'll give you my definition of
root, which is probably not technically correct in every detail, but you'll get the idea.
root is a 'superuser' account in the UNIX world. When you are
root, you can do anything you want to the system. This can be good (when installing some programs, for example), but it can also be very bad (if you accidentally delete the
/bin directory, for example).
99.99% of the time, you won't want to be root - it's just way too dangerous, especially if you're new to UNIX. There are some instances, however (mainly when installing UNIX programs, or modifying configuration files) when you'll need "root-level" permissions to get the job done.
Logging in as root is done in the same way as logging in as yourself, except the username is
root. The password (at least in the current OS X implementation) is the same as yours (ie the same as your normal user). You can also become the root user through a terminal window (a more common way of doing it), with the "su" command.
With all that said, I'll leave you with
don't login or 'su' to root unless you know exactly what you're doing -- it's quite easy to kill the system without even trying! Learn a bit first, and then when you do have occasion to be
root, you'll at least know what's going on.
Welcome to OS X...it's different, but (in my opinion) it's also quite cool!
-rob.
------------------
Visit
macosxhints.com ... a community-build OS X hints and tips site.
[This message has been edited by griffman (edited 12-30-2000).]
Thanks again.. I'm getting closer to OSX being my primary OS (well, except when I need to print.. grr...)
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