How (not) to Wreck Your Shiny New Laptop

Ok, I'm not at that point yet, actually. But the next time I login, I will be nervous. Make that extremely nervous.

I'm trying to install a program; the installer is a tar-ed binary (first reaction: what, it's not dmg?). Fortunately, it came with instructions. Unfortunately, the instructions assumed that you knew what you were doing.

For example, there are many files and folders fundamental to the computer that aren't listed explicitly in one's home directory. Anything starting with . (for which there exists the command "ls -a"), or things like /etc, for example. But they are there, and one can get to them in the usual ways if one knows that they exist. Of course, seeing them is not the same as writing on them - many of these files require root privileges. That alone makes me nervous. (I haven't enabled root on my computer yet, and I don't really want to. Nor do I feel like using the all-powerful "sudo" command.)

Another problem I had was mounting. It's trivial to mount a CD, usually: put it in, and the computer will know it's there. Question: where is the CD mounted? It should be at "/mnt/cdrom", but I had no such directory. I still don't know where the mounted image is, actually. In the end I gave up and copied the entire zipped installer into my computer, and went from there, but that's because I was lucky enough to have a fairly small zipped file. If it's huge, I can't do that.

The third thing is, I need to create and change .login in my home directory (I'm not touching the one in /etc). This is apparently what the computer reads when I log in to an account. So now I'm afraid of logging off, because the changes come into effect the next time I login.

Fourth, I have a serial number. What I don't have is a prompt for the serial number. Huh?

Lastly, where is the application, anyway? (I am seeing alot of .exe's, but I thought a program usually has an actual, clearly labelled icon with which one can open to start said program. Or am I supposed to run the program in Terminal, too? Grumble.

Oh, and please, please, please let this program be compatible with Snow Leopard. I don't have Leopard.

(The program has a Windows version, which I know how to use - at least it has an icon - but I need the full power of the computer to run the thing and this means a Mac installer - I don't want to run Boot Camp.)

Assuming that I can login at all, the worst case scenario is using Time Machine. If I can't, then I might have to re-install everything. Exciting, isn't it?

In short, I need a crash course in Unix. The problem is, these things usually come up on an ad-hoc basis, and there's no course that teaches every random thing that comes up.

Anyway, if the next post or edit comes from a PC, you'll know what happened. Gulp.

[Edited]
Well. I can still log in. And apparently I do have to run the program from Terminal (sigh). Whether the thing will work remains to be seen.

[Edited again]
It's finicky, but it works! It works!