Matisse Enzer
List Price: $24.99
By: Peachpit Press
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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Apple -> Mac OS X
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Apple -> Mac OS X UNIX
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Macs
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Almost perfect 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
I came to Mac OS X with almost 10 years of experience with mainly GUI operating systems; this book above all the others I looked at provided just the right all-round introduction to Unix on OS X. I cannot explain how a *Visual* QuickPro guide was so good at providing information about arguably the least visually rich aspect of the new Mac OS. It seems like an absurdly inappropriate format but somehow, it works perfectly - Mr Enzer gets things just right. There's no fluff and no overly chatty silliness to make the book an enormous doorstop. Nor is it ever tough going or unreadable - it's always well spaced, with excellent tips and notes sections and carefully paced.It's probably about time that it was updated for Panther, which was released almost 7 months ago as I write this but the author has already provided the relevant information for bash users (a clean Panther installation uses bash by default) as well as csh and tcsh. (Don't worry if you don't know what these are - all becomes clear in the book.) Yes, there's a good Unix section for beginners in Mac OS X Panther Unleashed, too (Willam & John Ray) but this one easily tops it and provides much more useful information, good as the other book is on Mac OS X in general. There are other books that talk to Unix geeks about the Mac - this one is the best I've come across at doing the opposite.
I'm withholding one star only because so many errors made their way past the proof-reading stage. (Easily fixed - go to the Peachpit Press site and save a copy of the online Errors & Corrections page for this book.)
If you are new to Unix or have the most basic of skills and you use OS X, this will give you exactly the grounding you need using just the right kind of language. It's beautifully done. Just don't forget to visit the Errors & Corrections page at Peachpit.
Editorial Review:
With Mac OS X, Apple has completely rebuilt the Macintosh operating system from the ground up--and yes, it's Unix that's running this new Mac OS. Mac users can now use the terminal command line to write a Perl script, automate batch commands, run an Apache server, use sendmail, and grep to their heart's delight. And alternately, many experienced Unix programmers are thrilled to be able to write shell scripts on the Mac platform. Unix for Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guide shows readers how to configure their Unix environment, navigate permissions, directories and files, run handy Unix utilities, configure and run the Apache Web server, and much more. In addition, readers will learn how to protect their files with Unix's security tools, and how to fix their Macs when things go wrong.
