Rating: 
Summary: Pretty much the best on this subject
Review: I've recommended the second edition of this book to my students for a while now, despite the fact that it is several years out of date. I was thrilled when I found out they'd written a third edition.I've yet to find any other text that comes close to covering the same material.
Rating:
Summary: Covers A Lot, Easy to Understand
Review: If you are not familiar with the Client/Server and Web programming jargon and/or are having trouble figuring out how all of the pieces fit together, this book is for you. You'll need to get past some of the 'cuteness' that the authors use to make their points. However, they cover the topic soup to nuts in a way that you will understand going forward. I picked up the first edition of the book by accident when I was trying to figure out fat client server computing and subsequently bought the other two versions to get more overview and to use as a desk reference (i.e. I had to explain the concept of ACID properties of transactions and needed a brush up) Lastly, if your manager is non-technical, do yourself a favor and get him/her a copy of this book.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive guide to the Client/Server world
Review: It's a really great book, that covers in detail all the aspects of the client server world. I'd would really recommend this book to anyone who needs to learn about this changing world. It's really GREAT!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, but may be too complex for technophobes
Review: Not being a technologist at all, I had one week to learn everything I could about client/server, especially how it applies to the Internet. This book had me speaking (though not always understanding), client/server jargon. The book relies heavily on acronyms which makes it very difficult to follow at times if you're not already familiar with them. However, with frequent trips to an online Internet encyclopedia, and a lot of patience, I was able to reach an understanding of the technology that I don't think I could have gotten by reading a drier, textbook-like book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Pros: - Easy to understand
This book explains technical concepts in simple english and gives analog to things we are familiar with. Most books out there "talks greek" and present technical concepts in a way that is more complicated than they actually are. - Breadth
I have been in the IT line for more than ten years and I can say that the breadth covered is simply astounding eg. user interface,
web server, application server, databases, remote procedure call, message passing. - Depth
The important parts of a topic is covered in sufficient depth to allow us to have a overview of the subject without being deeply buried and lost in the details. If further details on any topic is required, one can always look up the other books. We just need a good overview here. - Humor
I loved the humorous cartoons that aptly describe the concepts and keeps us from falling asleep. - Organization
The topics are well organized with similar concepts grouped under a common heading with subheadings and so on. Most books out there group multiple large concepts under one heading (with no subheadings) making it harder to read and bookmark. Cons:
This book is outdated. We need to know where does microsoft .net framework fits in. Is COM/COM+ dead ? Who is winning - .net or CORBA ? What about new standards such as SOAP ? What does microsoft new language C# brings to the world of client/server ?
Rating:
Summary: Good, easy read, dated.
Review: Slightly out of date but very good on the basics.
Rating:
Summary: No problem with acronyms
Review: Some of the previous reviews comment on the lack of a glossary and the heavy use of acronyms that are not defined in the book, making this a difficult read. I bought this book because of the great reviews in spite of the "acronym" complaints. Although this book is heavy on the acronyms and does not include a glossary, I was pleasantly surprised to find the acroynms are spelled out in the index and throughout the text. I suspect the previous reviews must apply to an earlier version of the book. This book provides excellent coverage of the Client/Server arena.
Rating:
Summary: For all non-geeks trying to understand technology
Review: Technology explained in plain English. Good for salespeople, managers, business analysts, and geeks who need a quick overview of technologies outside their focus area. Thorough but readable - wow!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book on Client/Server
Review: The book which covers every imaginable facet of Client/Server computing. The topics include operating systems, databases, middleware, data warehoues, transaction processing, groupware, distributed objects, CORBA, COM, and the Web. The authors keep this usually dry topic interesting and light-hearted. They present an excellent overview of each subject so it is a great first book to get your feet wet in client/server. Also, the book is incredibly up to date so if your knowledge is a little old, it will bring you up to speed on the latest developments. The only negative I can state is that at times when the authors try to dig into technical details, they make some inaccurate statements. However, if you use this book for general concepts and overview, this will not be a problem. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is working in the client/server arena. It is extremely useful to get a wide breadth of knowledge in this area.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on Client/Server in the market.
Review: This book is for client/server novices and those with experience in client/server development. For novices, this book is an excellent source for knowing the client/server architecture, 2-tier and above. As a person experienced in client/server development this book gave an understanding of basics of application layer from a theoritical perspective. This book has to be read many times and the readers will feel the need to refer to certain topics as the need arises. I have to caution the readers that this book is not meant to be read once. A client/server system consists of a) presentation layer b) application layer c) database layer. This books touches on topics on all the three layers In presentation layer, it deals with GUI/OOUI/non-GUI clients. In application layer, transaction processing (transaction management) is described in great detail. In the database layer, major database vendors are discussed (I feel this may not be useful for those of us already familiar with database management systems). Messaging components (I tend to include TP monitors in this category too) are discussed that form the core part of application layer component. The book discusses numerous other topics such as datawarehousing (OLAP, EIS, DSS), CORBA (excellent material to understand from a high-level perspective), object databases (I really liked this part because of my experience in RDBMS) and distributed objects and management. I would highly recommend this book for those of you out there waiting to know more about client/server architecture.
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