Rating: 
Summary: "An Excellent Textbook"
Review: I teach basic UNIX for my company and this small book is the text that I use for my students. UNIX for the most part is overwhelming to the beginner and the style of this book (and most all Nutshell books for that matter) are excellent in their presentation and practicality.
Rating: 
Summary: Big disappointment
Review: I'm a big fan of O'Reilly, but this book doesn't cut it. If you're completely new to computers and new to UNIX, this book is probably a good one, but if you are remotely familiar with another O/S, skip this book. It is way too basic and only covers a handful of commands. "UNIX for dummies" is less condescending and covers more. For instance, the printing section says what to do if "my printout hasn't come out". It says "other users may have made a request to the printer ahead of you and your file should be printed in turn." Then "...check the printers connections and power switch" Duh. O'Reilly usually writes books for smart people, this is an exception.
Rating: 
Summary: Learning The UNIX Operating System
Review: I'm a consultant currently assigned to a DB2/Mainframe to Oracle/UNIX conversion project. My current teammates have been working with the mainframe for 10+ years and have no knowledge of Unix whatsoever. I was looking for a concise and short introduction to the UNIX "world" that could motivate my teammates to get started on their own. This book was the answer. It gives a painless introduction to the operating system and it focuses entirely on what one needs to know to get started using one's account. But be advised: This little book (very fairly priced) is not as in-depth as some other O'Reilly books in the "Learning" series. There are other excellent books that will take further along if needed.
Rating:
Summary: Great First Step
Review: If you are a DOS/Windows user and are curious about Unix you won't find a better book than this to get your feet on solid ground. The book is well written, laid out and full of tips any user will appreciate.You will be pleased to find that Unix doesn't force you to choose between Unix and Windows, as any PC can be home to both operating systems at the same time. Unix also has a number of graphical environments available to the user,with XWindow being the most popular. The book doesn't cover windows in great detail, but does show the reader how to fire one up from the command line and create additional windows. Unix windows are in most ways stand alone objects that can have a separate program running inside of each window.On a quick check of the net, I found Unix and hundreds of programs that will run on Unix. The range of the programs available varied from text editors, games, C++ compilers, database programs, Java, web servers, you name it! Most of the programs are free, but distributed on CDROM at a modest charge. If you wonder why you might want to learn Unix, I would say it's because you will enjoy an operating system purposely designed to fully support multi-user, multitasking, and multithreaded operation right out of the box. Another benefit of Unix is a concept called a name pipe that permits passing the output of one program to the input of another program. You will really be surprised at how powerful a script the end user can create with a pipe. For example you can type input from the keyboard to a file, search the file for a string, then E-mail the result of your search to someone else with only one line of code! This book is of course, only an introduction to this rich, complex computing environment that will no doubt take years to learn, but it's a great first step!
Rating:
Summary: Just what the beginner needs...
Review: If you are new to UNIX or have dipped your toe in the UNIX pool, this book is the best introduction to read on what you can expect when swimming in this vast ocean. It's for those users that are either new to computers or want to know how to function in UNIX, like they do in their current OS. Buy it and start swimming.
Rating:
Summary: Just to start Unixing
Review: It is a good book for newbie. Don't expect too much from 90 page book. It is an introduction to Unix world only.
Rating:
Summary: Neet little companion
Review: Ok, so this little pamphlet probably gets laughs from administrators who see it on poor user's desks but I have to admit I don't use UNIX 24-7 and I forget commands every now and then. This is a good resourse to have around when you need to dive into the command line and you can't remember what the command was to calculate pi to the nearest whole number. Hats off to O'Reilly again.
Rating:
Summary: Ideal for total Unix newbies
Review: People who have never used Unix will find it very intimidating, but this book will definitely change that. This book doesn't try to throw a lot of information at you, but rather, it gives you a nice, easy-going introduction to using Unix.Some of the books strengths are its using of examples and illustrations. Using screens shots to show what the user will (or should) see helps the Unix shy better understand should happen when they do something. This book really does a good job in going step by step in order to accomplish. New users definitely won't feel like they will get lost. The other strength is how the book covers errors that users might encounter, and how to deal with them. Afterall, new users will make mistakes, and it helps to have a book that will tell users why they got that error. If you have a fair amount of experience in Unix, you should definitely read other books. If you are really new to Unix, then definitely read this book. You will definitely feel more confident when you are done. Even those who have learned Unix before just might learn sometihng new (I did). :)
Rating:
Summary: Ideal for total Unix newbies
Review: People who have never used Unix will find it very intimidating, but this book will definitely change that. This book doesn't try to throw a lot of information at you, but rather, it gives you a nice, easy-going introduction to using Unix. Some of the books strengths are its using of examples and illustrations. Using screens shots to show what the user will (or should) see helps the Unix shy better understand should happen when they do something. This book really does a good job in going step by step in order to accomplish. New users definitely won't feel like they will get lost. The other strength is how the book covers errors that users might encounter, and how to deal with them. Afterall, new users will make mistakes, and it helps to have a book that will tell users why they got that error. If you have a fair amount of experience in Unix, you should definitely read other books. If you are really new to Unix, then definitely read this book. You will definitely feel more confident when you are done. Even those who have learned Unix before just might learn sometihng new (I did). :)
Rating:
Summary: Greate book for first time users
Review: Short and sweet: the book covers the important basic info you need to know to be a good user with out any fluffy verbage. Quick and too the point. Sys Admins would be wise to buy a couple copys to loan out to those users "in great need". It is not the book buy if you are already comfortable with most basic unix commands; for those users, buy Unix Power Tools. I'm suprised mguthrie had such a negative experience. Maybe he/she should try an Etch-a-Sketch...
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