OS X (Apple)

I consider these files to be, indeed, kinds of preference files. AFAIK, they store all information related to the presentation of a certain folder to the user (and, if you've used OSX for any lenght of time, you'll know they do a bad job at it).
You can delete ANY .DS_Store file without worry. The only thing that'll happen is that the view/presentation of the folder that contained it will be reset to default.
There are even applications that will delete all .DS_Store files in a certain directory(tree) for you. I'm thinking of Cocktail and De_DDS. These come in handy if you are creating a CDRom for another platform, or if you are sharing a certain folder with other platforms, over a network.
It is indeed so that if you delete a .DS_Store, a new one will be created as soon as you open up that folder again.
I don't know what's in the apple.com... file though, though it will most logically be a reference to your desktop picture and its change regimen.

okay...got it

something to defintely keep in mind next time I'm troublehsooting OS X. thanks for the info