|
 |
|
 |
 |
Mac OS X in a Nutshell
|
by Jason McIntosh, Chuck Toporek, and Chris Stone
Sales Rank: 1013375
|
List Price: $34.95
$0.01
At Amazon
|
|
Paperback: 768 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly; 1 edition January 2003
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0596003706
ISBN-13: 978-0596003708
Product Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
Book Description
Mac OS X is a stunning technical achievement--a virtually crash-proof Unix core paired with the sleek Aqua interface, bringing style, usability, and stability to a new level. It has almost everything that Macintosh fans have been waiting for: protected memory, crash resistance, and the ability to run the 18,000 existing Mac programs and an unlimited supply of Unix and Open Source software. An instant success among longtime Apple users and developers, the new Mac operating system is becoming the system of choice among serious Unix users as well. There is plenty of territory to explore in Mac OS X, and O'Reilly's latest Nutshell book, Mac OS X in a Nutshell, offers all audiences--both longtime Mac users and converts--the most complete guide to this remarkable operating system.
In the tradition of O'Reilly's Nutshell series, this new title offers a thorough treatment of Mac OS X version 10.2, from its BSD Unix foundation to Aqua, the new user interface. The book's "Unix Command Reference" is the most complete and thorough coverage of Mac OS X Unix commands you can find anywhere. Each command and option in this section has been painstakingly tested and checked against Jaguar--even the manpages that ship with the system can't compete in accuracy. The reference incorporates the new command-line tools that come with Apple's Developer tools. It familiarizes readers with the Finder and the Dock, file management, system configuration, network administration issues, and more. Later chapters include bonus material for the Unix user, including advanced use of the Terminal and how to configure a DAMP (Darwin, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP) web publishing system. Other topics covered in the book include:- Filesystem overview
- Running Java applications
- System and Network Administration
- Directory Services and NetInfo
- Scripting on Mac OS X
- Using CVS
- Unix Command Reference
- Installing and Running X Windows and BSD Unix applications
Mac OS X in a Nutshell follows the common-sense O'Reilly approach, cutting through the hype and giving readers practical details they can use every day. Serious users who want more from their system will find everything they need to know systematically documented in this book. It provides a wealth of knowledge for anyone who wants to make the most of Mac OS X.
Customer Reviews & Comments
It must be difficult when writing a book for 'power users' to decide what exactly needs to be put in and what can be safely left out. This volume does the job quite well, covering the simple stuff quickly and early while devoting a great deal of its 750 pages to topics of more interest to serious users of Apple's new(ish) operating system. It also declares its audience early, the preface devotes a page to explaining the target audience and states it is 'aimed at folks with a more technical bent than the average user--the power user. The Gist Mac OS X In A Nutshell is quite well structured, and organized into into 5 parts. The first is a quick overview of the Macintosh GUI. The second part, "System Configuration," is mainly devoted to getting the system running well (covering preferences, networking, the file system and Java). The third section, "System and Network Administration," is a good guide to several lower-level tasks, including an excellent chapter on directory services and NetInfo. The fourth is about development, including Apple's IDE "Project Builder" and CVS. The final part covers the Unix underpinnings of OS X and X Windows. This includes a Unix command reference of over 200 pages. The Good The book is also well written, with light, easily understood prose and some good screen dumps, tables and diagrams to make some of the more complex points easily understood. I appreciate the detailed contents section, good quality index and black chapter tabs at the side of each page for finding the information I need. Everything seems to be covered, though you may sometimes find yourself needing to go elsewhere for more depth, but this is really only to expected in a book that is trying more for breadth across an entire operating system than depth in one particular area. Despite having used and developed on a Mac for over 15 years and OS X since the late beta stage I still found myself discovering something new and useful every few pages in the book. The Bad The section of the book I appreciated least was the Unix Command Reference. 200 pages, most of which are adequately covered by the online man pages or a quick 'command --help'. Not that it isn't useful having this information on paper, and not that this section isn't more complete than the man pages and less error-ridden. It's just that my favourite operating system has a large number of commands that are hard to find by name alone. Online, I tend to rely on apropos to find what I need. Back when you paid a large amount of money for a Unix license they came with hard copy manuals that included a permuted word index of the same top slug that apropos searches, which made them infinitely more useful. O'Reilly could improve the heck out of this book by giving us the same thing for what I felt was otherwise an almost totally wasted 200 pages (though I admit that the combination of the chapter on NetInfo and the command references for nicl and niutil etc. actually have me now understanding and using NetInfo well.) Once again O'Reilly have provided a web page for the book that is mostly marketing material -- though in this case the Errata page is useful. At the bottom of the page they have a number of links to "Related O'Reilly Articles" but have only listed three by the authors of the book, leaving out, for example, X11 and Open Office on Mac OS X by Wei-Meng Lee and Configuring sendmail On Jaguar by James Duncan Davidson to name two MacDevCenter articles I've found incredibly helpful. Conclusion This book is not quite in the "must buy" category. If you do want a book to help you with the more technical aspects of OS X or to help you move to OS X from Unix or Windows hacking then this one is worth a serious look. It certainly better covers the technical aspects than OS X Bible and others of that style (such as the 'Missing Manual' or Robin Williams' 'Little Mac OS X Book'.) The only other volume that really compares is 'OS X Unleashed' and it has way too much coverage of the simple stuff and the various applications, is not as well structured and has a wordier, less terse and technical style. It's also more expensive and twice the size and weight.
Comment | Permalink |
(Report this)
|
Mac OS X in a Nutshell
List Price: $34.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $0.01
| |
|
|
|
|
