Some tips may only work for a particular OS, though I’ve taken care to only select Terminal commands which should mostly work on Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion.
However, I strongly advise you to back up your Mac fully and proceed at your own risk! This is very unlikely and as long as you steer clear from “sudo” commands which require you to enter your password, you should be perfectly safe. Usually it takes destructive behaviour or terrible luck to ruin your Mac’s OS X installation beyond repair, but using the Terminal could potentially bypass such safety and enable a user to cause themselves serious headaches, or even (in extreme cases) a completely ruined operating system. This tutorial will discuss some of the best and most popular beginner-friendly Terminal tricks and tips to be found on the Internet. However, delve beneath OS X’s shimmering surface by launching Terminal and you will find it possible to unlock hidden features, perform advanced tasks, tweak and troubleshoot your Mac. Mac OS X is built to be so user-friendly that anyone can use it, regardless of their level of experience when dealing with computers.
