David Pogue is a well known author of a whole series of computer and other technical books. His latest book “Mac OS X: The Missing Manual” was published about 2 months ago in assosiation with O’Reilly.The book is written with the mindset of a “manual” for MacOSX, as these days less and less software in general, are shipping with printed manuals. However, the tone of the writting is light and Pogue has some good taste humour and at the right doses. All in all, reading the book was very relaxing, interesting and not boring at all.
The book starts with explaining how to use the GUI in general, but you still end up learning some special characteristics or key combinations on MacOSX that are not well known to the most of the Mac users. I liked his lengthy explanation on what is the difference between Carbon and Cocoa and how you can distinguish if an application is built with either APIs. It is important to know about it, as some different GUI controls and features are existing into these applications created with either the toolkits.
The book continues explaining how to use the included applications and utilities, and even goes as far as introducing AppleScript. On Part 4 things are getting a bit more advanced where networking and more advanced graphics and multimedia-related topics are discussed. There is even an introduction to the Terminal and Bash.
The book is a good overview of MacOSX. At places it is shallow, but at other places it is more in-depth. This book will appeal a lot for the people who just want to learn basic use of MacOSX, no matter if they come from MacOS 9 or Windows. However, if you are coming over from UNIX, this book will only help you on learning the GUI, as no real administration of Apache, mySQL, XFree or other advanced Unix-oriented software is discussed.
In general, if you are not the Ultimate Power User or a “hacker”, this book is for you. If you are, probably you will have already figure out everything included in the book by yourself…
Overall: 8 / 10
Buy “Mac OS X: The Missing Manual“ at Amazon.com for less |
A UNIX geek can muddle thru OS X via the man pages; the rest of us are likely to find great value in this book. I got a lot of basic find-your-way-around in the GUI info in it, and some intermediate-advanced stuff– like how does Applescript differ under X.
I got a sense of how to approach troubleshooting my machine.I learned what peripherals are “supposed” to be supported. I got a sense of the finer points of Apple’s idea of permissions. I learned how to burn CD’s under X.
And Pogue has an engaging style. I also liked his Palm book.
Two flaws: he should have mentioned MacJanitor, Brian Hill’s Cron utility. And he mught have mentioned how completely abysmal and useless one’s idisk becomes over dial-up under X. Awful idisk performance is one of the FEW reasons that EVER gets me back into OS 9. That and the fact that my USB iMation Superdrive doesn’t like X (though it is supposed to…)
Hey sweetheart, you don’t want me to get started, because I can flame better than you can.
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If you can prove that I am “pocketing kickbacks” (whatever that means), please include your real name and email address, so I will know who my accuser is. Otherwise, shut up, because *especially* me, I was not paid a single dollar for any of my articles over here (only the owner of OSNews, David, receives the money from the osnews banner ads in order to pay the server hosting).
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Exactly because we are a pretty well known news site these days (almost 30,000 page views per day), book publishers send us books for reviews, very frequently. The same way that Lycoris (yes, expect a review very soon), Mandrake, eComStation, QNX and other companies are sending us their software over here, so we can review them. That’s how it works with all the other web sites of our “range” too (NewsForge, LinuxOrbit, LinuxJournal, ActiveWin, MacSlash etc etc). We are an Amazon assosiate (as all these news sites are, including slashdot etc), and that’s about it.
Anyone find the section on “The Buzzword-Compliant Operating System” vaguely familiar? Recall reading a similar section with an almost identical title (BeOS: “The Buzzword-Enabled Operating System”) in a similar book on BeOS perhaps? Not wanting to sound coy, but it seemed too coincidental to be coincidental, if you know what I mean.
Nevertheless, I’ve gotten a lot out of Pogue’s book, and recommend it.
– Scot
Hey, “a reader,” you remind me of the story of the person who was so clueless, that even if he had covered himself in clue-musk and ran through a herd of clues during clue mating season, he still couldn’t get a clue.
Eugenia is most certainly not, nor would she ever, “pocket kickbacks” from anyone, especially not over something like this.
If OSNews gets a book or program or system to review, I for one, want to read about it. Lots of times, OSNews is the only place that even mentions a new or updated system. If you happened to actually read the review, you’d see that it wasn’t some kind of toady fake review, as you seem to be implying.
How about emailing a REAL apology to Eugenia, or even better, if you don’t like how OSNews is presented to your tender sensibilities, why not start up your own competing site? See exactly how much time and effort (not to mention sweat, cursing and general lack of appreciation from others) actually goes into this. Failing that, just don’t read the site if it ticks you off that much.
Can anyone suggest an “A is for Apple” introduction to unix book?
Many thanks.
Dave, please come back on osnews regularly, as I am preparing soon a book review of a MacOSX book that it presents the OS with the *unix point of view*!!! So far, I am very impressed by that book. But please wait for the whole review in 1-2 weeks, after I have finished reading it.
Timing is everything they say. I’ll keep an eye out for your review, many thanks.
Hey Eugenia, why don’t you review a BeOS book! There are so many to choose from! lol! Just kidding…
Anyways, I liked your review… the book that explains MacOSX from a unix point of view sounds good!
Now if I just had a mac… :p