On the Mac, if you delete a file from the GUI, it actually gets moved to a .Trashes folder in your home directory. However, if you rm a file from the terminal application (command line), it is gone for good immediately like in other unix implementations.
I would like to see Apple make this functionality more uniform in that files are moved to the trash, kind of like the Tru64 capabilities. You know what? I think I would leave rm as it is, but add a delete utility. What do you tihink?