After a long search I recently replaced my aging netbook. I ended up with one of the new 13″ MacBook Airs on which I dual-boot OS X (for firmware updates, Xcode for iOS development) and Linux Mint.

Attempting to access an older project with some hidden files I discovered I could not see them by default. I went into File -> Preferences..., no option. I went into View -> Show View Options, nothing there that helped. Turns out the solution is a bit more cumbersome.

What you need to do is open Terminal and type in:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Make sure you restart Finder after for the change to take effect.