Main article: Calculator is a basic made by and bundled with. It has three modes: basic, scientific, and programmer. Basic includes a number pad, buttons for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, as well as memory keys. Scientific mode supports exponents and trigonometric functions, and programmer mode gives the user access to more options related to. The Calculator program has a long history going back to the very beginning of the Macintosh platform, where a simple four-function calculator program was a standard from the earliest system versions. Though no capability was included, third-party developers provided upgrades, and Apple released the application with the first release (7.1.2) of the Mac OS, and it was a standard component through Mac OS 9. Apple currently ships a different application called.

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Calculator has support, and can also speak the buttons pressed and result returned. The Calculator appeared first as a in of for the 1984. Its original incarnation was developed by and its appearance was designed, in part, by when Espinosa, flustered by Jobs's dissatisfaction with all of his prototype designs, conceived an application called The Steve Jobs Roll Your Own Calculator Construction Set that allowed Jobs to tailor the look of the calculator to his liking. Its design was maintained with the same basic math operations until in 2002.

Screenshot of Apple Chess Apple Chess is a for, developed by It supports such as. It originates in and and is based on. Apple redistributes the source code under its own Apple Sample Code License. Contacts Contacts, called Address Book before, is a computerized included with 's.

It includes various synchronizing capabilities and integrates with other macOS applications and features. Address Book has two viewing modes: View Card and Column and View Card Only. The user can switch between modes with a control in the upper-left portion of the window under the close box. In releases prior to Lion, in View Card and Column, the Address Book window is divided into three panes. The first pane has the title Group. This pane lists All, Directories, and each user-made group. Users can add new groups by pulling the File menu down to New Group, or typing Command-Shift-N.

When selecting All or a user-made group, the second column has the title Name. It lists the names of the people with cards in that group, or all the names if the selected group is All, in alphabetical order by first or last name, depending on user preference. The third pane has the card corresponding to the selected name.

The card can include information, some of which the user can classify into customizable categories like Home and Work. Many of the fields can have duplicate entries, for example, if the person the card describes has several email addresses.

The user can edit the fields by pressing the edit button below the bottom-left of the third pane. Address Book can search LDAP (network) directories. Users customize these in the LDAP tab of the preferences.

Users search these by selecting Directories in the first pane, selecting a directory or All in the second pane, and typing their search in the search box above the top-left of the third pane. Results appear in the third pane. The computer must be connected to a on which the directories reside. If the location has changed or the network connection has been lost, Address Book can’t look up contacts in directories on the network.

If the computer is set up to access directory services on one's local area network, Address Book automatically searches the directory services for addresses. One can also set up Address Book to search Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers for addresses. LDAP is an Internet protocol used for looking up contact information on servers. Information from network directories appears only when one is searching. To search a network directory, select Directories in the Group column and a directory in the Directory column, and then type text in the search field. To add someone from the network directory to one's personal address book, drag the card from the directory to All in the Group column.

For instructions about setting up one's computer to access directory services on one's local area network, open Directory Utility and choose Help Directory Utility Help. Dashboard. 'Activity monitor' redirects here. For the fitness device, see. For the generic system component, see.

Activity Monitor is a for the, which also incorporates functionality. Activity Monitor appeared in, when it subsumed the functionality of the programs Process Viewer (a task manager) and CPU Monitor found in the previous version of OS X. In, Activity Monitor was significantly revamped and gained a 5th tab for 'energy' (in addition to CPU, memory, disk, and network). AirPort Utility AirPort Utility is a program that allows users to configure an and manage services associated with and devices connected to. It comes pre-installed on, and is available to download for.

AirPort Utility is unique in that it offers network configuration in a native application as opposed to a web application. It provides a graphical overview of AirPort devices attached to a network, and provides tools to manage each one individually. It allows users to configure their network preferences, assign accounts to the network, and configure USB attached Printers and hard drives. The current versions are 6.3.6 for recent versions of, 5.6.1 for and older versions of Mac OS X, and 1.3.4 for.

On January 30, 2013, Apple released AirPort Utility 6.0 for macOS featuring a redesign of the user interface focused on increasing usability for novice users. Reception was mixed with some media outlets reporting IT professionals and network administrators being frustrated over some removed features. It was reported that most end users, however, wouldn’t notice the feature omissions. Users requiring the removed features can still access the previous version of AirPort Utility using a workaround. Audio MIDI Setup The Audio MIDI Setup utility is a program that comes with the operating system for adjusting the computer's input and output configuration settings and managing devices. It was first introduced in as a simplified way to configure MIDI Devices. Users need to be aware that prior to this release, MIDI devices did not require this step, and it mention of it might be omitted from MIDI devices from third-party manufactures.

Bluetooth File Exchange Bluetooth File Exchange is a utility that comes with the, used to exchange files to or from a -enabled device. For example, it could be used to send an image to a, or to receive an image or other documents from a. Boot Camp Assistant. Main article: Assists users in installing on their Mac using Boot Camp.

ColorSync Utility ColorSync Utility is software that ships with. It is used for management of color profiles and filters used in Apple's, or applying filters to PDF documents. The interface is composed of two parts: the document browser and the utility window. The document browser lets you zoom in and out of an image or apply a Filter to it.

The utility window has several options: Profile First Aid, Profiles, Devices, Filters and Calculator. Profile First Aid allows you to repair ColorSync color profiles so they conform to the specification. Profiles allows you to browse the profiles installed on your system, grouped by location, class or space, and graphically compare any two profiles. The profile map is displayed as a rotatable, scalable 3D object and can be plotted in,.

The Devices section allows you to see a list of all registered ColorSync devices such as your displays and printers, and see what ColorSync profile is applied to each one. You can also override the default setting. The Filters section allows you to build and modify PDF filters that are available to the rest of the operating system. Each filter can be set to appear in one of three domains: Application, PDF Workflows, and Printing.

Filters set to Printing will appear in the drop-down menu under the 'Save as PDF.' Button in the standard Mac OS X print dialog box. Filters set to PDF Workflow will appear in the Filters drop-down menu in the ColorSync section of a print dialog box. The default filters that ship with Mac OS X are:. Black & White. Blue Tone.

Create Generic PDFX-3 Document. Gray Tone.

Lightness Decrease. Lightness Increase. Reduce File Size. Sepia Tone. User-created filters can have color management, image effects, PDF retouch, domain selection and comments. The Color Management section allows assigning a profile, choosing a default profile, converting to a profile or intermediate transform. The Intermediate Transform section allows adjustment of brightness, tint, hue, saturation, bilevel (high pass filter) or profile assignment, to either, or, or all data in the file.

This can be applied to either text, graphics, images or shading. Complex filters can be created by stacking multiple effects. Any changes made to the PDF file can then be saved as a new PDF file.

Calculator can convert between, and other color value schemes, and features an interactive color-picker for identifying a color on the screen, duplicating a feature of another bundled utility,. ColorSync is 's for the. Apple developed the original 1.0 version of ColorSync as a Mac-only architecture, which made it into an operating system release in 1993. In the same year, Apple co-founded the (ICC) to develop a profile format which became part of ColorSync 2.0. The system Color Management Module (CMM) was 'LinoColorCMM', which was developed by Linotype-Hell AG (now part of AG). The same CMM was used in Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP under the rubric of 'Image Color Management' (ICM).

Apple, with the help of had ported ColorSync 2.0 and its to. With ColorSync 3.0, the Windows version which was initially planned was discontinued. ColorSync 4.0 is the latest version, introduced in. Human is a very complex and subtle process, and different devices have widely different color or ranges of color they can display. To deal with these issues, ColorSync provides several different methods of doing color matching. For instance, perceptual matching tries to preserve as closely as possible the relative relationships between colors, even if all the colors must be systematically distorted in order to get them to fit within the gamut of the destination device. Because the human eye is more sensitive to rather than, this method tends to produce the best-looking results, subjectively speaking, for many common uses, but there are other methods that work better in some cases.

As dictated by the ICC system, the profile connection space in ColorSync is the. All image input and output devices (scanners, printers, displays) have to be characterized by providing an that defines how their color information is to be interpreted relative to this reference color space. This profile might be provided by the device manufacturer, but for better quality results, it might be generated by performing actual measurements on the device with a.

Thus, when an image is scanned on a scanner, the image file will include a copy of the scanner's profile to characterize the meaning of its color information. Then, before the image is sent to an output device, a matching process converts the color information at the time of rendering from the source profile (that attached to the image) to the destination profile (that attached to the output device) so that the resulting colors print or display as closely as possible to the original image. Console Console is a viewer developed by and included with. It allows users to search through all of the system's logged messages, and can alert the user when certain types of messages are logged. The Console is generally used for troubleshooting when there is a problem with the computer.

MacOS itself, as well as any applications that are used, send a constant stream of messages to the system in the form of log files. The console allows you to read the system logs, help find certain ones, monitor them, and filter their contents.

Clicking on 'Show Log List' in the toolbar will bring up the Log List. The Log List opens a sidebar which shows all of the different logs that the system maintains. This list helps in viewing the many different logs maintained in various parts of the system by bringing them all together to one place. By clicking on a particular log category, all of the logs will be shown. The System Log Queries contains all of the logs that have to do with the entire system. This includes logs as well as individual logs. Selecting All Messages gives a live look at your computer's activities, updated live.

This includes all activities from both the system as well as any applications running. Logs in this section of the Console are all formatted uniformly. They all include a, the name of the or, and the actual message of the. When the message displayed includes a paperclip icon next to it, it means that it is a shortened version of a longer report, and clicking the icon will show the complete report. In addition to viewing all messages, users can also create custom queries with any criteria that they like. These custom queries will filter the messages and will also be shown in the All Messages section.

In order to make a new query, choose 'New System Log Query' from the File menu. Digital Color Meter Disk Utility. Main article: VoiceOver is an application where the user can listen to spoken descriptions on the computer. Main article: Stocks System Events SystemUIServer ThermalTrap Ticket Viewer UniversalAccessControl UnmountAssistantAgent UserNotificationCenter VoiceOver Weather WiFiAgent System / Library / CoreServices / Applications About This Mac Archive Utility Archive Utility (BOMArchiveHelper until ) is the default handler in. It is usually invoked automatically when opening a file in one of its supported formats. It can be used to create compressed by choosing 'Create archive of 'file' (Leopard: 'Compress') in the 's.

It is located at /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Archive Utility.app in Mac OS X 10.10, /System/Library/CoreServices/Archive Utility.app in 10.5 and later, and /System/Library/CoreServices/BOMArchiveHelper.app in Prior to Archive Utility's inclusion in, beginning with, Apple bundled the freeware with the operating system. Invoking Archive Utility manually shows a minimal letting the user change Archive Utility preferences or choose files to compress or uncompress. BOM is an abbreviation of Bill of Materials. Files or.bom files are used by the macOS program to document where files in an installer bundle are installed, what their file permissions should be, and other file metadata.

Thus, a Bill of Materials is read by the Installer, and Archive Utility helps it by extracting the files specified in the BOM. Directory Utility Feedback Assistant Folder Actions Setup Network Utility RAID Utility Screen Sharing Storage Management System Image Utility Wireless Diagnostics Other applications and accessories Crash Reporter Crash Reporter is the standard in. Crash Reporter can send the crash logs to for their to review. Crash Reporter has three modes of operations:. Basic — The default mode. Only application crashes are reported, and the dialog does not contain any debugging information.

Developer — In addition to application crashes, crashes are also displayed for background and system processes. Server — The default for macOS Server systems. No crash reports are shown to the user (though they are still logged). None — Disables the dialog prompt. Crash reports are neither displayed nor logged. The developer tool can be used to change modes, as can using the terminal command write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType basic developer server. In basic mode, if Crash Reporter notices an application has crashed twice in succession, it will offer to rename the application's preference file and try again (corrupted preference files being a common cause of crashes).

When reporting a crash, the top text field of the window has the crash log, while the bottom field is for user comments. Users may also the log into their e-mail client to send to a third-party application developer for the developer to use. Directory Access Internet Connect. Running in the Classic Environment The Classic Environment, usually referred to as Classic, is a and in versions of that allows most compatible with to run on Mac OS X. The name 'Classic' is also sometimes used by software vendors to refer to the available to 'classic' applications, to differentiate between programming for Mac OS X and the classic version of the Mac OS. The Classic Environment is supported on PowerPC-based computers running versions of Mac OS X up to 'Tiger', but is not supported with 'Leopard', nor on -based Macintosh computers running any version of Mac OS X.

The Classic Environment is a descendant of 's 'Blue Box' virtualization layer, which served as a. (Previously, Apple also offered a virtualized Mac OS environment on top of a operating system.) It uses a Mac OS 9, and a file to bridge the differences between the older PowerPC Macintosh and the environment. The Classic Environment was created as a key element of Apple's strategy to replace the (versions 9 and below) with Mac OS X as the standard operating system (OS) used by computers by eliminating the need to use the older OS directly. The Classic Environment can be loaded at (for faster activation when needed later), on command, or whenever a Mac OS application that requires it is launched (to reduce the use of system resources when not needed). It requires a full version of Mac OS 9 to be installed on the system, and loads an instance of that OS in a environment, replacing some low-level with equivalent calls to Mac OS X via updated system files and the Classic Support system enabler. This sandbox is used to launch all 'classic' Mac OS applications—there is only one instance of the Classic running for a given user, and only one user per machine may be running Classic at a time.

If the user chooses to launch the Classic Environment only when needed, launching a 'classic' application first launches the Classic Environment, which can be configured to appear in a resembling the display of a computer booting into Mac OS 9. When the Classic Environment has finished loading, the application launches. When a 'classic' application is in the foreground, the at the top of the screen changes to look like the older Mac OS system menu. And other user-interface elements retain their traditional appearance. The Classic Environment provides a way to run 'Classic' applications on Apple's systems as well as on most G4 based computers sold after January 2003. These machines cannot boot Mac OS 9 or earlier without the bridging capabilities of the Classic Environment or other software (see ). Classic is not supported on versions of Mac OS X that run on Apple systems incorporating, which includes all new shipping Apple computers, as of September 2006.

The last version of Mac OS X to support the Classic Environment on PowerPCs was 'Tiger'. The Classic Environment's compatibility is usually very good, provided the application using it does not require direct access to hardware or engage in full-screen drawing.

However, it is not a complete clone of Mac OS 9. The Finder included with and later does not support the 'Reveal Object' used by some Mac OS 9 applications, causing the 'Reveal In Finder' functionality for those applications to be lost. Early releases of Mac OS X would often fail to draw window frames of Classic applications correctly, and after the Classic Environment's windowing was made in, some older applications and games sometimes failed to update the screen properly, such as the original Macintosh port of.

However, the Classic Environment 'resurrected' some older applications that had previously been unusable on the and series; this is because Mac OS X replaced Mac OS 9's system with a more standard and less fragile implementation. The Classic Environment's is also generally acceptable, with a few exceptions. Most of an application is run directly as PowerPC (which would not be possible on Intel-based Macs). Code is handled by the same that Mac OS 9 uses. Some application functions are actually faster in the Classic Environment than under Mac OS 9 on equivalent hardware, due to performance improvements in the newer operating system's.

These applications are largely those that use heavy disk processing, and were often quickly to Mac OS X by their developers. On the other hand, applications that rely on heavy processing and which did not share resources under Mac OS 9's model will be interrupted by other (non-Classic) processes under Mac OS X's. The greater processing power of most systems that run Mac OS X (compared to systems intended to run or 9) helps to mitigate the performance degradation of the Classic Environment's virtualization. 'Software Update' redirects here. For software updates in general, see. Software Update was a that installs the latest version of Apple software on computers running Mac OS X. It was originally introduced to Mac users in.

A Windows version has been available since the introduction of, under the name Apple Software Update. Software Update automatically informs users of new updates.

The program was part of the in OS X. Software Update can be set to check for updates daily, weekly, monthly, or not at all; in addition, it can download and store the associated file (the same type used by ) to be installed at a later date and maintains a history of installed updates. Software Updates consist of incremental updates of OS X and its applications, Security Updates, and updates. All software updates require the user to enter their administrative password, as with all consequential system changes. Some updates require a system restart.

Starting with, updates that require a reboot log out the user prior to installation and automatically restart the computer when complete. In earlier versions of OS X, the updates are installed, but critical files are not replaced until the next system startup.

Beginning with OS X 10.8 and continuing to modern versions of macOS, Apple software updates are applied using the application. Starting with (10.14) software updates are now applied using. Shimpi, Anand Lal. Retrieved 2018-05-09. Jason Snell (October 16, 2014). Retrieved May 14, 2012.

Retrieved January 11, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2016. February 21, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2012.

Chung, Jackson (September 10, 2008). Retrieved April 17, 2012. spiff (October 28, 2003). Mac OS X Hints. Brad Miser (2004). Special Edition Using Mac OS X, V10.3 Panther.

Que Publishing. Topher Kessler (October 29, 2013). Switch to a Mac. June 15, 2009.

Retrieved May 14, 2014. Apple Support. June 11, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2014.

ITunes Preview. Retrieved August 14, 2014.

^ John Martellaro (February 3, 2012). The Mac Observer. Retrieved May 14, 2014. Topher Kessler (January 31, 2012). Retrieved May 14, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2012. Retrieved 2017-11-20.

March 23, 2014. Kirk McElhearn (May 1, 2012). Retrieved November 25, 2013.

Sandro Cuccla (October 27, 2012). The Mac Observer. Retrieved November 25, 2013. April 1, 2008. Fried, Ina; John Borland (January 10, 2006). Retrieved 2016-09-14.

I have a 2015 Macbook Air 11' running Yosemite. Because of unstable Internet at home, I have not tried to update to a more recent version of the OS.

I have now discovered the joy of free Internet at coffee shops and libraries. So, my questions are should I update? What issues might I encounter? For example, 1.

Will I have to spend the night at the coffee shop to install it. I understand it can take a long time. Is there a way to save my current operating system on my 3Tb external drive using Time Machine, so that I can reinstall it if I have issues with the installation? Or do I need some other kind of software and if so what would you recommend? All advice gratefully received. Thank you, Carole.

First of all, you should be making regular backups (with Time Machine or another archiving utility) on a regular basis, regardless whether or not you will be imminently upgrading your computer's operating system. Here's how I would do this. Acquire an external USB drive that is the same size or a little larger than your Mac's drive.

Use Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your Mac's drive running Yosemite. Boot from the external USB drive to verify that the copy is functional. Download the macOS High Sierra Installer from the Mac App Store at whatever location has decent Internet, but do not run the installer. Just leave it in the Applications folder and go home. Acquire an 8GB USB thumb drive or an 8GB SD card and appropriate card reader.

Use your favorite search engine to look for 'mac OS High Sierra bootable USB.' There will be a number of online articles that explain how to create and use a bootable USB thumb drive with the High Sierra installation instructions. Follow those instructions.

I have two Macs, so it is handy to have the bootable USB installer thumb drive. I download the macOS Installer once, install on each system. The next time around, just repeat.

Clone current drive to external USB drive, download new macOS installer from Mac App Store, create new bootable USB installer, upgrade software. I've been doing this for years.

First of all, you should be making regular backups (with Time Machine or another archiving utility) on a regular basis, regardless whether or not you will be imminently upgrading your computer's operating system. Here's how I would do this. Acquire an external USB drive that is the same size or a little larger than your Mac's drive.

Use Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your Mac's drive running Yosemite. Boot from the external USB drive to verify that the copy is functional. Download the macOS High Sierra Installer from the Mac App Store at whatever location has decent Internet, but do not run the installer. Just leave it in the Applications folder and go home. Acquire an 8GB USB thumb drive or an 8GB SD card and appropriate card reader.

Use your favorite search engine to look for 'mac OS High Sierra bootable USB.' There will be a number of online articles that explain how to create and use a bootable USB thumb drive with the High Sierra installation instructions. Follow those instructions. I have two Macs, so it is handy to have the bootable USB installer thumb drive. I download the macOS Installer once, install on each system.

The next time around, just repeat. Clone current drive to external USB drive, download new macOS installer from Mac App Store, create new bootable USB installer, upgrade software. I've been doing this for years.

Click to expand. Thanks for the detailed reply. I do make regular backups to my usb hard-drive, which is 3TB. My laptop has 256 GB storage. So do I put Yosemite on that drive or do I need a thumb drive? I don't think I have ever seen a thumb drive with more than 256 GB storage.

Or am I misunderstanding your instruction? In a coffee shop today I did download the MacSierra installer. It is in my application folder, but it is only 19.7 MB. Is that right? It downloaded very fast. I didn't click on install - too chicken.

My laptop is my only computer. So if I screw this up, I have nothing, except my iPhone SE and original iPad Air. There is an alternate approach to this, if you're making Time Machine backups. Time Machine allows you to roll-back to a previous period in time (such as just before you upgraded the OS), restoring the entire computer to the state it was at that moment. To do such a roll-back, you'd boot the Mac into the Recovery system Restore from Time Machine backup. You'd then be able to pick the date/time you want to restore to, and just walk away until the restore is done.

To go this route, just make sure you do a final Time Machine backup prior to upgrading the OS, then upgrade MacOS via the App Store. If all goes well, there's nothing else to do. If the worst happens, you restore from Time Machine.

There's nothing wrong with the other procedure outlined. It is a bit more 'suspenders-and-belt,' and definitely more time-consuming. A bootable thumb drive installer can be a useful tool, especially if you have poor internet, a pre-2011 Mac that's not capable of Internet Recovery, are running MacOS betas, and/or if you're replacing the Mac's HD. Since none of those situations seem to match the described circumstances. Maybe not so essential.

OP: If you want to try an update, go ahead. I'd suggest Sierra instead of High Sierra. Too many folks having problems with HS right now.

No matter which new version of the OS you try. There's a VERY IMPORTANT THING that you must do first.

If you DON'T do it, and the upgrade doesn't go well, you'll find yourself 'up the creek without a paddle to get back'. Here's what you need to get and what you need to do: 1. You'll need an external USB hard drive large enough to back up your internal drive 2. You'll need either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both of these are FREE to download and use for 30 days. Then, do this: 1.

Connect the USB drive and initialize it to HFS+ with journaling enabled (using the Disk Utility app) 2. Launch CCC (my preference). You can accept the defaults for now (I usually turn 'safety net' OFF for a true 'clone') 3. On the left, select your SOURCE drive (the internal drive) 4. Just to the right, select your TARGET drive (the USB drive) 5. Now, let CCC do its thing.

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When done, you'll have a fully bootable 'clone' of the internal drive. Boot from it and it will look EXACTLY like the internal (the only way to tell them apart is to go to 'about this Mac' (Apple menu) and see what it says. Now it's time to upgrade. If the upgrade goes wrong, you just do this: 1. Boot from the cloned backup (reboot and hold down option key until the startup manager appears, then select the backup and hit return) 2. ERASE the internal drive using Disk Utility 3. RE-CLONE the backup BACK TO the internal drive using CCC.

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This will put you 'back to where you once belonged', just as if you'd never left. Again, if you DON'T do this, there isn't going to be 'an easy way' to get back. You can still get there, but it will become LOTS of work! Oh, one more thing: Probably the best way to DO the upgrade is to do this: 1.

Download the OS installer. As soon as the download is complete, it will open and invite you to start the upgrade, but.

Get a USB flashdrive 16gb (or larger) 3. Get either 'Boot Buddy', 'DiskMaker X', or 'Install Disk Creator' (all are free, you only need one of them) 4. Use one of the apps above to create a bootable USB flash drive installer. Boot from the flash drive installer, and install that way. Things just seem to go smoother this way. When I told you to buy a USB drive that is the same capacity or slightly larger than the drive in your notebook, I meant for you to buy an external USB hard drive (or SSD), typically a 2.5' drive. When you make your bootable USB installer, use a thumb drive (or SD card with compatible reader).

That is not the right file you downloaded. Perhaps you downloaded something else because the file itself is not called the MacSierra installer. It should be around 5 gigabytes and should be called something like 'Install macOS High Sierra.' Go to and click on the blue 'Upgrade' button in the upper left hand corner.

That should take you to the proper Mac App Store listing. Post Merged, Nov 10, 2017 -QUOTE='ApfelKuchen, post: 25439014, member: 731826' There's nothing wrong with the other procedure outlined. It is a bit more 'suspenders-and-belt,' and definitely more time-consuming. A bootable thumb drive installer can be a useful tool, especially if you have poor internet, a pre-2011 Mac that's not capable of Internet Recovery, are running MacOS betas, and/or if you're replacing the Mac's HD. Since none of those situations seem to match the described circumstances.

Maybe not so essential./QUOTE I have terrible Internet at home and I don't live close to a coffee shop or a library, so I think a bootable thumb drive would be really great. I didn't know you could do that.

I even asked AppleCare if I could buy the OS on a thumb drive or CD and was told no, which in essence is true, but was quite misleading because she knew what my problem was.