New Mac User ISO Tech Support

Beware, I'm very rusty on Apple computers and Mac OS.

It sounds like you are running the FF application from the disk image that you downloaded to the desktop. Often the install process on a Mac requires little more than dragging the application package bundle from the opened disk image on the desktop to the system or user application folder.

The Apple Mac OS is different enough that it is really worth buying a book to learn how to use it - try something like "Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual" (or whatever the current version of Mac OS X is up to now - I did say I was rusty!).

 

First thing when buying a Mac is to get a standard USB two-button mouse with scroll wheel. If the right click menu doesn't come up properly, it may need to be programmed to be the equivalent of ctrl-click, but it's been so long since I've done this, I forget how it's done.

About the finder, you should be able to drag the application to the launch bar. You may have gotten the disk image (setup.exe, basically) of the application instead, like timberwolf says. I would expect them to be in the Applications folder, I'm not sure what happened. (Quite often the instructions are to open the disk image, then copy the application yourself into the folder of your choosing).

 

you have to drag the firefox icon into your application folder first. That will install the app. Then you can drag from the application folder the icon to the launch bar or the "dock" and the app should start with one click on it.

Any standard mouse works. I use a microsoft bluetooth mouse with my macbook and it works fine.

 

Open the applications folder and drag their icons to the dock.

That window was probably a disk image. Many apps are distributed in disk images. The folder probably had some text saying to drag the firefox icon to your applications folder.

On the Mac most applications (at least the good ones) don't use installer programs. You simply copy the app to your applications folder.

OMG!!! Don't do that or PERMANENT damage will occur!

Just joking - Any USB or bluetooth mouse (the MacBook has BT built in) will work. Just plug it in. Right click, scroll will all work. No drivers will be needed.

 

I'm sure your wife will enjoy the Macbook. It will only take a short while to get up to speed on it. Also keep in mind that if you really need to run Winblowz, you can do it on the Macbook in a couple of different ways. But once you get used to MacOS, it's hard to go back.

I'm still waiting for Apple's human interface designers to come up with the iCar.

 

Installing from the disk image: You need to drag the Firefox icon to the applications folder. Have the "window" for they computer or your home in column view, then drop the firefox icon in the applications folder. Then open the applications folder. Make sure you're in "column" view. Click on the Firefox icon only once and the next column will show a large Firefox icon along with other info. Drag that large icon to the dock and drop it there. That makes an automatic alias. I keep my Firefox icon near my mail icon.

One button Mac mouse: If you hold down the command/apple button you'll get Firefox to open in a new tab. If you hold down ctrl and then click, that's the same as a right click and you'll get the menu.

I've been using a Wacom tablet and the wireless mouse that goes with it for years.

 

yes, you can remove it from the download folder.

 

Once you go Mac, you never go back. LOL

 

Also go to apple's website and download some good widgets for your dashboard. stuff like weater forecast, currency and unit converter come very handy.

 

Widgets are no big deal, she will never see them unless she opens Dashboard, which you pretty much have to want to do, and even then you could tell her thats what Apple had on there, if you want more there are a bunch more that can be added. They are very handy though, I use the fuel price locator, radar and calculator a lot.

 

All good advice, but I didn't see one particular aspect mentioned. There are 2 "Applications" folders, or rather 2 kinds. One is the global folder at /Applications, where / is the file system root (== C: ). Each user also has an Applications folder in their home directory. Usually, they are both in the search path so its not a big deal for a single user computer, but apps put in ~/Applications (~ == "My Documents") aren't normally available to other users. Their is no registry; apps keep track of their own crap. So you can install pretty much install anywhere you want, but that way leads to chaos.

The reason for global and local application folders is that users can play around/experiment/live dangerously in their own environment without significantly upsetting other users apple carts especially if all users except one admin account are not granted administrative rights (highly recommended). Typically, I install locally until I determine if an app is worthy of keeping and move it the global folder. And that goes for new versions of apps already installed globally.

 

Go to finder --> preferences --> advanced and turn on "show all
file extensions" before doing much else. Then you'll see that your
firefox install package came as a .DMG file, a disk image, with the
.APP application-bundle contained inside it once it's mounted.
That's the entity you drag to Applications to actually install
it on your own HD. Once you've done that and are done with the
.DMG it came in, you can chuck that.
.
Then, hop into a Terminal shell and note that the "application" is
really a little [or not so little, in FF's case] directory tree of
the actual binary and a ton of support stuff, and that's what the
Finder grovels through to find the actual binary and launch it.
The Finder normally hides the bundle contents, so you don't get
to see what's inside the bundle unless you take real tools to it.
.
So, in summary ...
_ .DMG downloaded [which you can dispose of later]
___ .APP directory tree [that gets dragged/installed]
_____ Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin and friends [runnable prog]
_____ Contents/Resources et al, the plug-ins/extensions/js stuff
.
I'm just going through this whole mill too, but with an emphasis
on locking down the running environment so it still has my favored
"steam-powered" feel when up against sites that try to feed me all
kinds of scripting garbage. I might try to work up a post-install
guidelines document [for macos as a whole, not just firefox] as I
continue learning more about this, but there are many such useful
treatises floating around out there already. Google for "leopard"
and "security" and poke around developer.apple.com and get ready
for a thousand fun ratholes.
.
_H*

 

You may be interested in checking out a program called "Little Snitch"

Little Snitch

If nothing else, it is interesting to see how many applications attempt to contact the outside world. With Little Snitch, you get alerted when an app attempts to make a connection and you can allow or deny access.

 

I can basically do that with "ipfw" and tailing the firewall log...
.
_H*