Mac OS X: The Complete Reference

Rating:
Summary: Extensive, but shallow
Review: A better title for this book might be "Mac OS X: The Complete Overview". Coverage of the new OS is a mile wide and an inch deep. It might be a good book for someone thinking about moving to OS X who is looking for general information to help make their decision, but its lack of depth will frustrate a new OS X user wanting to master their system. For some chapters the low level of detail is fine and to be expected, but for others it effectively renders the information provided useless. For example, I found the chapter on using the command line particularly frustrating as I wanted to learn how to use some of the basic commands. There is an extensive list of commands, but no explanations of how they work. Here is an example: chmod: Change file permissions chmod [-R [-H | -L | -P]] mode file ... That is it! No explanations of the options, what the modes are, or what exactly you need to type in for 'file'. This may be okay for a Unix user needing to confirm the command syntax, but for a classic Mac user, this section is largely useless without an accompanying Unix manual. Having said that, if all you want is a flavor of OS X, and not any detail, the book is extensive and does touch on almost all of its features.

Rating:
Summary: Useful for learning & setting up system.
Review: A complete reference for the user just getting started with Mac OS X. It explains not only how to use the operating system but also why things are organized as they are and how it came to be that way. Lots of step by step instructions on setting up accounts, defaults etc. Later chapters explain in more detail such things as how to set up a local area network and even some rudimentary unix commands. I found the chapter on Applescript (for automating tasks in a simple way) to be very useful.

Rating:
Summary: Too General for Most Mac OS X Users
Review: As a Mac power user for almost ten years, I've seen quite a few sad Macs, bombs, and blinking question marks on monitors. What I hadn't seen before upgrading my PowerBook to a TiBook with OS X about six months ago was a Unix command-line interface. Until recently, I had dealt with major OS X crashes by rebooting in OS 9.2.2 (a.k.a. Classic) and then resetting the Startup Disk control panel preference to OS 10.1.4 (OS X) and hitting the restart button. One day, I was tweaking some data in the NetInfo Manager utility and some related library files, and somehow I accidentally trashed my root password. When I rebooted, I encountered the command-line interface on a black screen, with a line of text that read 'etc/master.passwd not found.' I entered my System Administrator and sysadmin (root) logins and passwords to no avail. Next, I reached for my copy of 'Mac OS X: The Complete Reference' by Jesse Feiler, which I had received as a gift but had never had occasion to use much.

'Using the Command Line,' Chapter 21, is intended for use with the OS X Terminal utility application, not for use in the situation I have described above. However, I entered almost every command listed there, from 'sudo' to 'chmod' to 'mkdir.' Nothing worked. I couldn't access the Mac Network Administration Help file for this problem because I needed to be logged onto the OS X network to do so, and I couldn't log on. I looked in this 'Complete Reference' for the troubleshooting section, and there wasn't one. The index didn't even have a listing for 'troubleshooting,' except for one on 'troubleshooting utilities,' which wouldn't have been useful for this kind of problem. I rebooted into Classic from a CD and then did enough online research to figure out that the best way for me to solve the problem would be to do a backup of my files, reinitialize the hard disk, and reinstall the OS X and OS 9.2 system software, applications, and files.

Next, I decided to partition the 48 GB hard drive. (The new TiBook had shipped with OS X and Classic pre-installed on one partition.) I consulted the 'Complete Reference' for some advice on partitioning. On page 103, there was one long paragraph that ended with this recommendation: 'One strategy is to create a small partition - with a very stable set of software - on your hard disk.' In other words, this book recommended that I create two partitions, one small (used for rebooting purposes) and one large (for everything else). There was no information on formatting with Unix, which it is possible to do by using Disk Utility. On pages 239-41, I found more vague information on using Disk Utility for partitioning that didn't answer my questions. 'Complete Reference' made the assumption that unless one was a software developer or tester, there would be no need for more than two partitions on one's internal hard drive. I had been doing extensive beta testing with OS X software applications, not industry related or for fun but out of necessity because so many of my apps for OS 9.x had not interfaced well, and some not at all, with OS X.

'Mac OS X: The Complete Reference' is an 800-page general overview. It gives a succinct history of the Mac OS evolution from 1984 to today, including chapters on Classic, Carbon, and Cocoa. From my perspective, the information presented in this book is too simplistic for most Mac users. The 'Using Mac OS X' section may be helpful to first-time Mac users who prefer a nonintuitive approach to learning their way around the Aqua environment. The information on iTools is nothing more than what is available at the Apple site. The 'Networking' chapter has very basic information that could be useful to Internet and Intranet novices. I think the lack of troubleshooting advice is a glaring omission. Based on other reviewers' helpful advice, I'm purchasing John Ray's 'Mac OS X Unleashed' to assist me with what's 'under the hood' with OS X, and Robin Pogue's 'Missing Manual' for some new 'tips and tricks.'

Rating:
Summary: Nice book for a new Mac User
Review: As a new Mac User, this book is an excellent resource! I searched high and low to find something that was comprehensive enough to appeal to the more technical aspects of the OS and this book did delve into them to a fairly good extent (some mention of architecture and comparative architecture). For the most part, I would have given the book a 4/5, but ... there's a programming section! This is very nice to add to a book and it brought back all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings of the old days when all manuals and texts dealt with programming to some extent. Nice book and a good choice for those needing a Mac reference. The book spends some time on the interface and interaction with the interface -- so you may wish to skim "some" of the material if you are already comfortable with GUI operations. However, sometimes reading these sections will give you insight into something you forgot or a detail you never quite knew.

Rating:
Summary: Complete Reference? Not even close.
Review: Bottom line is that if you know nothing about OS X this will tell you everything--I mean EVERYTHING! If you already know Unix, this will be a good reference to see how OS X is Unix. If you're a PC person, this is payback for being a victim of Windows; this despite the fact the PC users can adapt better to OS X than old die-hard Mac people.

Rating:
Summary: Ton of Technical Tips
Review: Bottom line is that if you know nothing about OS X this will tell you everything--I mean EVERYTHING! If you already know Unix, this will be a good reference to see how OS X is Unix. If you're a PC person, this is payback for being a victim of Windows; this despite the fact the PC users can adapt better to OS X than old die-hard Mac people.

Rating:
Summary: Too techy and not logically organized
Review: Disappointing. I've been a Mac user for eleven years, and have bought my share of Mac books especially in the beginning. I recently purchased this 750-page tome as an introduction to Mac OS X, but whoa boy...it's not exactly an asset to my Mac library. If your idea is to get conversant with Mac OS X in a jiffy, this is really not the book for you. Especially the organization of the chapters is of the "what the hell was he thinking" variety. The first 90 pages, rather than gradually easing the reader up the OS X learning curve, push him or her into an abyss of mostly highly technical background information about the nuts and bolts beneath the new Mac skin. Before you know it, you're struggling your way through discussions of old coding languages and operating systems. A deluge of arcana ensues -- stuff about Pascal, Mach, DOS and UNIX architecture, kernels, Darwin, POSIX, etcetera. None of it seems the least bit relevant to anyone but the most hardcore propellerhead. It would be OK if that's all the book wanted to be -- a repository of high-tech geek info -- but Feiler then bizarrely veers off into detailed advice-giving to another demographic altogether: absolute beginners. We are told How to Move a Window, How to Scroll a Window's Content, How to Close a Window, and so on. We also receive an explanation of the difference between a pop-up menu and a radio button, and other tips that will extract a heartfelt "duh" from anyone who has been NEAR a computer, Mac or Windows, in the past ten years. Granted, there IS much solid information here, and I don't want to knock the Herculean task that Feiler accomplished -- but due to the book's haphazard organization, its absence of levity, and its supergeek leanings, reading and internalizing the useful information is harder than it should be. You never get the impression that Feiler is a careful coach who seeks to gently guide his students through the Mac OS X minefield; rather, he just kinda reproduces the considerable knowledge he's acquired, without much regard for didactic niceties, and without any appreciable effort to make the hard parts go down a little easier. I gave up on this book in frustration after a day and a half, went looking for an alternative, and found David Pogue's "Max OS X, the Missing Manual" (correctly billed as "the book that should have been in the box"). For my money, Pogue's book -- not just authoratative but well-organized, clearly written and designed, pleasantly conversational, and ocassionally funny -- is head and shoulders above Feiler's. And at almost 600 packed pages, it's almost as complete as Feiler's "Complete Reference."

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended.
Review: Helpful and thorough, contains everything you need to know. I like having one source for the Mac OS X info I need.

Rating:
Summary: Title should be "The Almost Complete Reference--"
Review: I agree with Binder on this--although I'll be a bit more
sympathetic and give it 2 stars.
My primary complaint is that it is too light on the inside
details. I consider myself an expert on Unix operating systems,
having worked on Unix machines for about 15 yrs. Apple's implementation is very interesting and they have done a bang-up
job in synthesizing a beautiful GUI with a kick-a** operating
system.

From a "power-user's" point of view, there are numerous differences
between BSD and OSX that should have been covered in a "Complete"
reference. Foremost amongst these is how to use "NetInfo"
to manage deamons, printers, etc... There are a number of
good books on general Unix admin. But, some in depth coverage
of the inner workings of OSX would be nice.

When I bought this book, I was expecting a real bread and butter
book on OSX, what I got was about 500 pages of mostly useless info on how to point and click through the various standard apps.

Rating:
Summary: Not as "Complete" as I was hoping for...
Review: I am a long-time and dedicated Mac user, with varied amounts of experience with other platforms -- I have enough Windows experience to earn an MCSE, but only enough Unix experience to be afraid of the root account. I have been very excited about the potential of Mac OS X and wanted a book that was a comprehensive reference for the GUI side but also had substantial documentation of the Unix side, particularly the command line interface.

This book is a fairly decent intro to OS X, but its command line reference is awful. I bought the book and ended up returning it to the store later the same day.

This weekend I just picked up "Mac OS X Unleashed" by John Ray and I would definitely recommend that title over this one.