The moment of choice
 

Imagine your search for a software programme has just yielded multiple results. Which one should you choose? I will be able to choose if someone can tell me:

1.What is the difference is between a dmg, a sit, and a gz file?

2. If it is best to go for a faster speed, which is fastest T1, T3 or higher, DSL?

3. When I have downloaded a software programme, do I hit 'launch' in order to install it on my machine?

4. How can I be sure it does not contain a virus?

choose the one with the right (or realistic) file size.

.dmg's are OS X disk images. SIT is StuffIT compressed files (mostly used for OS 9) and I'm not sure about the usability of gzipped files on Macs.

Speeds in increasing order are modem, cable, T1, T3 and Ethernet

Use the explore button to go to the saved downloads folder, then just double-click the file to unstuff or mount it.

You can't be sure the files are useful and virus free, but there are still no reported viruses for Macs, and I don't know if Virex's OSX virus scanner has even been updated to work with OS 10.4

the moment of choice
 

thanks very much.
Can I ask a follow up, just to clarify?
I do not know what a disk image file is. But I take it I should not bother downloading those. I recently downloaded a zip file, and doubled clicked on it but nothing happened. For now, the only other alternative seems to be the sit file. I have a Stuffit programme. I presume that that will be used automatically to open the sit file.

When you say mount it, does that mean put an icon of it in the dock, or on the desktop?

So T3 and ethernet are faster than DSL?

DMG = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.dmg

Toast can mount many but not all dmg files.

Disk images can mount on the desktop like a cd/dvd/external device. It can be opened & copied. When you downld the LW program, it comes in dmg format. BTW I came across this silly link: Using a dmg file which is not the most intelligent thing I've ever read but ... lol :D

Some mac files do get sent as gz, but not too commonly. Stuffit expander can uncompress them.

The reason you couldn't open the zip file might have been that it was corrupt or in fact, a pc virus in disguise. Particularly if it was less than 1 MB in size.


Here's some references for speeds: 1. What speeds are T1/T3, etc. for LW, & 2. More on LW connection speeds, & then 3. What is a T1?

Ethernet is the fastest because it's on a LAN or WAN & you get the full speeds of the local network speeds.

Thanks for all previous responses. Very helpful.
What is an srt file?
I am looking for some episodes of a tv series and found a load of them. They are all srt files. They download very quickly; But I am not sure if I should open them

I just googled this. I THINK srt files are files containing subtitles so that's why they downloaded quickly :):)

This link will give you more information:-

http://www.moviecodec.com/topics/5605p1.html