Mac Switcher

For Windows users, it is odd that the Mac OS X applications(apps) does NOT close. You click on an application window’s red close button at left corner, but the software does not quit! It simply hides the software from OS X desktop. This article try to explain it to you.

Note: Unlike Windows, OS X put the buttons at the left corner.

What happen?

First, lets take a look at application icons on Mac OS X Dock (the bar with icons).

Normal application icon looks like this:

Active application icon has a looks like this:

The black arrow indicates that the application is active and running.

When you click on the red close button at the application window corner, the application close and disappear from your view. But it does not quit, you still see the black arrow under the application’s icon on Dock. Meaning, the application is still in system memory.

Mac OS X dynamic memory management

Mac OS X has a very good dynamic memory management system that it does not need to release one application’s memory for another application. All applications can sit in system memory at the same time! OS X will handle their memory needs, seamlessly.

The benefits

The benefit of do not quit application is that…err… you don’t need to quit application. You get instant access to the softwares you open before, no more waiting for applications start up.

I still want to quit OS X software!

There are several ways to quit an OSX application and remove it completely from system memory.

• Click on the application name on the menu bar and select Quit [app] ( [app] is your application’s name).
• Use keyboard shortcut key: Command (⌘) + Q
• Control + Click on the application icon on Dock, then select Quit

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 at 3:13 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks, Mac OS X, Mac Switcher. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.