Rating: 
Summary: Too shallow for casual and power users
Review: "Learning Unix for Mac OS X" is a disappointing effort by O'Reilly to introduce Unix to Macusers new to OS X. While the book succeeds in showing readers some simple commands to navigate through Unix, its coverage is far too shallow. Macusers interested in knowing just the basics will do better with David Pogue's section on Unix in "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual." That section alone probably contains more than 50% of the material in "Learning Unix for Mac OS X."If you are *serious* about learning Unix for Mac OS X, get a copy of "Mac OS X: Unleashed" by John and William Ray. At +1,000 pages, the book is a doorstopper, but it covers almost everything a Unix power user aspirant would want to know: how to navigate through Terminal, set up an Apache webserver with PHP and MySQL, etc. Again, get "Mac OS X: Unleashed" only if you truly want to unlock the power of Unix in OS X. In short, whether you are a casual or power user interested in learning Unix for OS X, there are better options other than "Learning Unix for Mac OS X."
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent starting point for Unix novices
Review: Dave Taylor and Brian Jepson, please take a pedagogy pill and call me in the morning... Sheesh, could they have made this any more obtuse? Purchase this book if you have a lot of time on your hands and/or enjoy learning things despite the best efforts of the author. To paraphrase Churchill: "Never have two guys taken so long to explain so little."
Rating:
Summary: Unix for people who already know Unix...
Review: Dave Taylor and Brian Jepson, please take a pedagogy pill and call me in the morning... Sheesh, could they have made this any more obtuse? Purchase this book if you have a lot of time on your hands and/or enjoy learning things despite the best efforts of the author. To paraphrase Churchill: "Never have two guys taken so long to explain so little."
Rating: 
Summary: A beginners guide to getting into UNIX
Review: I am not sure what the other posters thought but this book simply brought you into the world of UNIX. For some reason they thought they were going to learn in-depth UNIX in 150 pages. "Learning UNIX for OS X" is just a small step into learning the command line interface in Mac OS X. This book does not show you architecture of the OS nor advanced commands, Mac OS X Unleashed goes over these in-depth. OR if you want to master the command line, get O' Reilly's "Learning CSH & TCSH". The only real problem I had with this book is that it was an alteration of the already being published "Learning UNIX" book by O'Reilly which I own as well. While this book wasn't a waste of time, quite a bit was identical.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent starting point for Unix novices
Review: I have recently fallen in love with Macs. I had been a Windows developer for 15 years. Occasionally I have had to poke around on the Solaris command line at work, but I am a Unix newbie. This book does a great job of laying out the basics of Unix for people who have little or no Unix experience. This book does not provide a "quick start". It does not go into excessive depth on Unix. But it does provide fundamental building blocks for expanding one's Unix knowledge. My suggestion to Unix novices: read this little book from cover to cover. Then you'll be able to take advantage of all the free articles and technical documentation that explain how to do the fun, tricky stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Incomplete and unsatisfying format
Review: I was disappointed in this book, but maybe I expected too much from a low cost O'Reilly title. Generally, I have found them to be quite useful. Unfortunately, this book is poorly organized for somebody trying to actually figure out how to do something complex in the Mac Unix. You'd be better off getting a good general Unix reference. While the major commands are described, the book leaves out a lot of the advanced flags, which makes the book only partially useful. Also, the organization makes very little sense to me, but for a rank beginner in Unix, it might be more useful.
Rating:
Summary: A very thin book, I sent it back.
Review: I was very disappointed when this book came. I didn't realize how thin this book would be from the description. I am a fan of the O'Reilly books, and their reputation led me to believe there would be a little more "meat" here. At a glance it appears to be well organized and written. This would be a good first half of a book, or the book should be half the price. I don't understand who the audience would be for this book. In my opinion (I might be wrong here) anybody who is even INTERESTED in the OSX terminal already knows about CD, LS, PWD, MKDIR, CHMOD, and MV... and that is half the book! I am going to be a lot more careful when I order O'Reilly books from now on. (Two stars because it is well organized but a third of what should be there).
Rating: 
Summary: So, I'm not buying it after all...
Review: I've been waiting for this book. A few months, actually. With great expectations. What a bummer, reading the reviews so far. Summing up; since I've already got "Mac OS X Unleashed", "Learning UNIX", and "Mac OS X Pocket Reference", there's no point in getting this as well. Too bad - I really hoped for an in-depth 'manual' to the Mac OS X underpinnings. B
Rating:
Summary: Good book...
Review: if you are completely new to UNIX. If you buy "MAC OS X Unleashed" you will get more information about UNIX & Mac OS X plus more. If you are completely new to UNIX is a very good intro.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Starting Point
Review: In the vast world of Linux/UNIX, I found it hard to know where to start learning. I figured that since I knew a significant amount about OS X that this book might make for a good beginning level book. I was so right. For someone who knows absolutely nothing about UNIX commands, this book is for you. You will learn the absolute basics and nothing more. Keep that in mind: you will not learn anything beyond the basics. If you're looking for something a little more comprehensive, then look somewhere else. However, if you are looking for a short, basic introduction to the world of UNIX so you can get around, this book is definitely for you.
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