Many of these apps are large files and will take a while to download. Because unix is the engine, you can use your favorite linux tools, plus prettier programs written for Macs. It is a version of BSD Unix with a fancy graphical interface. This is not a tutorial.Īs a brief introduction: Mac's operating system is called 'OS X' or now 'macOS'. This page assumes you want to write scripts, reduce data, plot results, work with LaTeX, and give presentations, among other handy things. If you're a scientist with a new Apple computer, read on. Setup a New Mac for Astronomy Getting Started