Newbie Tip: Installing an application (i.e. Firefox) from a disk image
One of the most common Mac newbie mistakes is running an application from within a disk image. For some reason, this is most often the case with Firefox.
You can think of a disk image like a box used to physically deliver your application; you need to receive the box (download), open the box (double-click disk image), and move the contents out of the box and into your home (drag application icon into your applications folder).
Typically, when you download an application from the internet, it comes “wrapped” in a disk image. If you’re coming from PC land, a disk image is similar to a Zip file, in that both disk images and zip files contain several files within them.
Let’s use Firefox as an example of the correct way to install an application from a disk image. Go to the Firefox download page and click “Download Firefox” – you will see that the file you are downloading has a “.dmg” extension. This is the “disk image” extension.
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