Well, I got me a new toy to play with! (A Mac Mini) I thought I would get some screen shots before I began performing unspeakable experiments on it. (What?! No, it doesn't involve Windows, I'm not *that* sick and twisted).

It is hardly fair just to show the GUI of an Apple Mac. Apple tries to present a certain style that exists not only in the software but also the hardware. From their suspiciously bible-sized Mac Mini to their high end, high powered PowerMac Mac OS works with the hardware to provide as pleasant of a computing experience as possible. (Oh, and they come with Apple stickers too!)

Most users will not actually install Mac OS X themselves, it comes pre-installed on all Apple Macintosh computers.

When the Mac is first powered on it starts the Setup Assistant that guides the user though:

• Migrating from a previous Mac
• Signing up for an "Apple ID"
• Registering with Apple (they try to force you to do this but Command-Q bypasses this)
• Creating your local Mac OS X account
• Setting up your Internet and mail.

Oh, riiiight.... I *WILL* set one up later.

Seems you just can't get away from someone trying to sell you something these days.

(And no, it is not at all required or needed like Windows activation is)

Finally, when the initial setup is complete, this is the default desktop that appears. Different Mac models may have different software bundled with them and different icons may appear in the menu depending on what hardware is installed. (Such as Bluetooth and Airport)

Notice that the pinstripe appearance, introduced in the original Aqua, is further reduced in in 10.4. The menu bar is almost a solid glass like gradient now.

The new Spotlight search utility is on the menu bar, and It is also now possible to set an application to open automatically at login, directly from the Dock.

Although I couldn't get a screen shot of it, they slightly addressed the issue of dragging things from the Dock only to have them deleted without any warning - in 10.4 as you start to drag an item from the dock the cursor now changes to an arrow with a "poof" cloud by it to indicate its function.

A fancy new gee-whiz feature of Mac OS 10.4 is the "Dashboard". The dashboard contains small applications (or "widgets") that appear all at once over whatever else is displayed when the Dashboard icon is selected. Note that some of these require fetching information over the Internet from various services.

Spotlight is a useful new way of searching you Mac's hard drive. It organizes the results in groups and and can display thumbnails of some kinds of documents.

Spotlight can also be used in open and save dialogs.

The control panel has been revised to use forward and back buttons and includes a search function. Type in a keyword and it will highlight the control panel options you are most likely looking for.