[Advice] can someone explain me downloads?

[thefalloftroy]

im new to the mac os x system. so could someone explain me what is the .dmg file when i download something off the internet, whats the icon on my desktop created afterwards, how do i remove those, if theyre temporary files and how do i uninstall things? thank you

[spec09]

A dmg is the container that files are stored in, giving you the ability to open and close that container. Think of them like a usb thumb drive. You plug in the thumb drive (double click the dmg) and in that container are your files. You do the same thing to dmgs. Mount them, eject them. In the dmg is either a .pkg or .mpkg, which is your install shield for mac. Go through the steps to install everything where you want it.
The second item in the dmg container would be the application itself. All you have to do is take that file, and drag it into the applications folder. Then you can eject the container that you copied it from, and delete it.

If you're not installing applications, then the dmg acts as a .zip drive, and all files are in there.

All you do is right click (or control-click the white box) and hit eject. then you can delete the dmg.

Hope this helps.