Chapter 8. Unix-Based Internet Tools

If you’re going to be interacting with the Internet extensively, odds are good that you’ll opt for attractive and easy-to-use Aqua applications. Bear with us, though; there’s a lot of power in the Unix command-line alternatives, and they’re well worth learning.

Fink

The Fink Project is made up of volunteers who are bringing open source software to Mac OS X. They do the work that is needed to make these programs run smoothly and keep them updated so they work with the latest release of Mac OS X.

Two of the programs featured in this chapter, Lynx and Pine, are available through Fink, as is a wealth of other applications. To install Fink, do the following:

  1. Download the binary installer disk image (a .dmg file) from http://fink.sourceforge.net/download.

  2. In the Finder, double-click the .dmg file to mount the disk image.

  3. Open the mounted disk image and double-click the Fink Installer .pkg package inside.

  4. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Tip

You can also find an installer for Lynx and Pine by selecting the “Get Mac OS X Software...” menu from the Apple menu, which opens a web browser and takes you to the Apple web site. From there, find and click on the “Unix & Open Source” link, which offers a list of useful Unix applications, including Lynx and Pine. The advantage of using Fink is that it will manage thousands of available packages, making sure that you have the latest versions and that different packages cooperate with each other.

To begin ...

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