Rating: 
Summary: This book was absolutely TERRIBLE!
Review: I cannot express my disappointment enough. This book was a required buy for my SAIT college class... what a waste. A few chapters into the book I began to question the authors' understanding of the subject. Their writting technique is bizarre to. For instance; they mention a new accronym but don't define it until the next page. In some cases the accronym isn't even defined in the book. I swear the authors made up some accronyms because they're not listed on whatis.com.The number one thing that told me this book sucked was the section devoted to comparing an OOUI to a GUI. ...OOUI...is an Object Oriented User Interface. Oh, wait a sec, that would be a GUI wouldn't it!? OOUI is a neologism folks. The list goes on. The author thinks that a client must have a GUI in order to be a client. Go to DOS and type 'ftp'. Hey look, I'm using FTP but I'm not a client. Wow. ... DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: This book was absolutely TERRIBLE!
Review: I cannot express my disappointment enough. This book was a required buy for my SAIT college class... what a waste. A few chapters into the book I began to question the authors' understanding of the subject. Their writting technique is bizarre to. For instance; they mention a new accronym but don't define it until the next page. In some cases the accronym isn't even defined in the book. I swear the authors made up some accronyms because they're not listed on whatis.com. The number one thing that told me this book sucked was the section devoted to comparing an OOUI to a GUI. ...OOUI...is an Object Oriented User Interface. Oh, wait a sec, that would be a GUI wouldn't it!? OOUI is a neologism folks. The list goes on. The author thinks that a client must have a GUI in order to be a client. Go to DOS and type 'ftp'. Hey look, I'm using FTP but I'm not a client. Wow. ... DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: A good book to read twice...
Review: I don't have a programming background and only had general knowledge about the client/server architecture world when I purchased this book. I needed to come up to speed quickly. The book was recommended to me by a co-worker who is extremely knowledgeable about c/s. At first I tired to read the book as a reference piece, reading just the parts that I was interested in at the time. I didn't get anything out of the book, confused by all the acronyms. I found myself with some free time and ended up reading the book cover-to-cover within a week (unfortunately not sitting on the beach as the authors suggest). This made a world of difference. Each chapter builds on the next and the information started to crystallize. I highly recommend this book for anyone that wanted to learn about c/s. I plan to read it again. With ever-changing technology this book will become quickly out-dated. This is one reader that will be looking for the next edition. The reason this book is "one star short" is because while I was reading, I kept wishing for a section where all the acronyms are expanded for quick reference. A glossary would also be great.
Rating:
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY!
Review: I found this book to be both a waste of money and my valuable time. I was looking for an intermediate to advance level treatment of client server systems. I was utterly disappointed. This book attempts to start from the very basic fundamentals and delve into the more advanced concepts. It miserably fails at its task. For the intermediate to advanced level readers, it fails to deliver what they were expecting. For example, 80%+ of each chapter is devoted to covering the basic terminology and the remainder tries to touch base on the various technologies. I found the coverage to lack detail and completeness. If you happen to be a begginer at the subject matter, you may be even more disappointed. Skimming through the fundemantals, I was surprised to find the basics were explained in terms of the advanceds. For instance, middleware was explained in terms of its utility in transaction integrity and load balancing. Anyone who understands transaction integrity and load balancing doesn't need an explanation of middleware. He/she would most likely be interested in specific methodologies. And, anyone who doesn't know what middleware is, most likely will not know what transaction integrity and load balancing mean. This book is full of such, let's say, logical inconsistency. ...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference - but waiting for fourth edition!
Review: I found this book very interesting 1.5 years ago when I read it. Partially because there was a very good match between what was written in there, and what I could hear around me in the work place. Time has passed, and I hear less and less talk about CORBA (except in negative terms), and more and more talk about Websphere (based on some technologies explained in the book also - I have to say)... The third edition remains mostly interesting, but it is now more of a book providing background information, rather than a book providing cutting edge info and likely to help people make choices for the future. I am impatiently waiting for the fourth edition. Bernard
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference - but waiting for fourth edition!
Review: I found this book very interesting 1.5 years ago when I read it. Partially because there was a very good match between what was written in there, and what I could hear around me in the work place. Time has passed, and I hear less and less talk about CORBA (except in negative terms), and more and more talk about Websphere (based on some technologies explained in the book also - I have to say)... The third edition remains mostly interesting, but it is now more of a book providing background information, rather than a book providing cutting edge info and likely to help people make choices for the future. I am impatiently waiting for the fourth edition. Bernard
Rating: 
Summary: Tour de force of entire client/server arena
Review: I have been doing nothing but client/server for the last five years. In spite of that I cannot keep up with all the latest developments. I am a computer consultant -- in my field it is imperative that I have a very broad overview -- I never know what my clients might ask and must have something worthwhile to answer. This book is an excellent book for understanding the entire client/server space. The level of detail is excellent for such a broad overview. It is not too deep. It is not shallow. Use this book as a jump-start to understand the client/server landscape. When you find areas interesting to you, deep-dive into them.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on 3-tier client server
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone wants to know about current status of client/server. The book covers all aspects of client, server, and middleware(/). There is a "meet the player" chapter for each technology, which provides an excellent entry point for evaluating products. There is a small omission on page 291. The book list vendors of query/report tools. However, Crystal report, which is the market leader, is missing from the list.
Rating:
Summary: Good book to learn the lingo!
Review: I purchased this book to use it for a college course and I may say that it was very good specially if you want to learn how all this Inet thing really works. Only thing I disliked about it was that there were TOO MANY acronyms that I had to go back and forth to see what they were. If you can overcome that, then this book is for you. :)
Rating:
Summary: Dust in the wind...
Review: I'm the AS/400 developer with RPG background, and for the the last one year programming with VB Client/Server and accessing by stored procedure. I thought it was enough until I find this book. It has opened my eyes : there are so many - many technologies must be learned in the sort time. This book will encourage you to learn Java & CORBA !!
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