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Lesson 1
   

How Do I...?
A Tutorial for Macintosh Users  

 

Lesson #1: OPERATING SYTEMS

Operating system (or "OS" for short) is what every computer needs to function. Companies like Apple and Microsoft update their operating systems to help their computers run faster and more efficiently. A new OS comes out every year or so, and they usually include improvements to the existing version. Microsoft's latest OS is "Windows XP" while Apple computers run "OSX" (a.k.a. "Jaguar"). The latest version that Apple is currently shipping on all new computers is OS 10.2.6
Every iMac in our school is currently running OS 9.2. The decimal point means that there have been TWO updates to the OS 9 operating system.  Older Macs at Sagebrush are running anything from OS 8.1-8.6.

So how do I know what operating system my computer is running?

Two ways: 1. When you turn on your computer, you will see the Mac OS symbol along with a number. This will tell you which version of the operating system your computer is running. See picture below:

operating system startup

2. If you did not see your computer starting up, you can move your mouse to the top left corner of your screen click "Under the Apple" and select the first item listed: "About This Computer".

about this computer

After you click this selection, you will see a screen that tells you the Operating System currently running, along with how much memory is available. * Don't worry about the memory settings for now. We'll get to that next!

Mac OS Window

This computer is currently running OS 9.2.2 which means that the OS9 system has been updated TWICE, and there have been two revisions made to 9.2 that most likely fixed bugs and glitches in previous versions of OS 9.2.

movieWatch a movie on OS 9! CLICK HERE! (1:05)

Ready to review operating systems? Take a short QUIZ to check for understanding.

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