Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

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CHAPTER 2 THE FILE SYSTEM
While there are other folders in your various Library folders (and often third-party applications
will install their own), Table 2-1 covers most of the default ones. Before moving on, we’d
like to give just one more mention that, in general, if you’re unsure of what an item in one of
your Library folders is, just leave it alone.
The Applications Folder
The Applications folder, as you may have guessed, is the recommended folder for installing applications.
Keeping all your applications in this folder makes things fairly easy to find. If, however,
you find that you have many applications and this folder starts to get cluttered, it’s common to
create your own subfolders to organize types of applications. For example, you might create
/Applications/Games/ for any games you install or /Applications/Graphics/ for any graphics apps
you install. This sort of organization makes it easy to find what you are looking for.
TIP One common practice is to drag your Applications folder onto the Dock—that way you
can easily access all of your applications from the Dock without having to dig through the
Finder.
CAUTION Some applications don’t like to be moved from where they are installed. For the
most part, any moved application will function just fine; the problem is that sometimes, when
it comes time to update your application, the update utility expects the original application to
be in a specific location. This is especially true of Apple’s default applications that are frequently
updated with the Software Update utility. If you do move an application into a
subfolder and something strange happens when you try to update it, you can usually move the
application back to its original location and redo the update with no harm—it’s just a bit inconvenient.
As a general rule, if an installer installs an application, it’s best to leave it where it’s
installed (although installers often provide an option to install in subfolders). If you install an
application manually by just dragging it into the Applications folder (as is often done), then
it’s probably safe to put it anywhere you want.
The Users Folder and Your Home
The other default folder at the top level of a fresh Leopard install (aside from Applications,
System, and Library) is the Users folder. This is where each user’s personal folder resides. This personal
folder is usually referred to as the Users home directory (or just home). Inside of the Users
folder will be a home folder for each of the system’s users (named after the “short” name chosen
when the account was created) and a Shared folder. The Shared folder is a place where certain
applications will install some information common to all users, but it’s used infrequently. Your
home directory, however, is where you generally keep all of your documents, and where all of
your personal settings are stored.
Your home folder, by default, starts out with nine subfolders: Desktop, Documents, Downloads,
Library, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public, and Sites. Each of these folders has a specific purpose, as
explained in Table 2-2.