Jesse Feiler
On the surface, Mac OS X isn't all that different from Mac OS 9.1. Indeed, most users will be just as happy with the slightly older version of the Macintosh operating system as with version X. But for people who have longed for a more robust kernel with true preemptive multitasking, better graphics support, and a stronger suite of programming tools, Mac OS X is manna. Like too many other books that choose to focus on Mac OS X as just another Mac System for everyday home and office users,
Mac OS X: The Complete Reference explores the new Mac OS in terms of its basic features before delving into its new architecture, server capabilities, and BSD Unix-derived features.
Feiler's coverage of the new features isn't terribly deep--readers might expect more from a "Complete Reference." In explaining the new low-level architecture of Mac OS X, for example, Feiler does a fine job of explaining that Mach manages system resources and that an implementation of BSD Unix handles tasks associated with networking, the filesystem, and threads of execution. Great, but there's nothing about configuring a machine at the BSD command line or the "Unix way" of thinking about hardware and settings. Read this book if you're a beginner or interested in a high-level guide to the new features, but look elsewhere for deep documentation. --David Wall
Topics covered: The features of Mac OS X, explained at a level suitable for everyday users, with some sections of interest to administrators and power users. Specialized sections address architectural fundamentals, hardware and software setup, networking, and programming with AppleScript, Carbon, and Cocoa.
1 Complete Reference? Not even close.
I'm a sysadmin in a shop running Windows clients. We also run several Unix servers so I'm familar with that side as well. We're planning a project to run some servers for users to save their files to for archiving and backup. I bought this book to learn more about OS X to see if it will fill this role.
I wish I had read the reviews here before purchasing the book. It would have saved me the trouble of returning it for something better.
The first issue I ran into was it doesn't describe how to attach Windows users to a server running OS X. I can attach my users to our Unix boxes running SAMBA. I assume that OS X, being based on BSD, would be able to do the same thing. SAMBA is never mentioned, at least not that I can find. It's not in the index and I can't find any mention in the text. The only networking information I can find seems to be designed for a plain-vanilla Mac environment. My domain controllers are all NT. It would be nice to have information on how to validate users against an NT domain. Again, I can do this with SAMBA on my Unix boxes. This *is* supposed to be the "Complete Reference" right?
The second issue is that backing up the server is glossed over in a few short paragraphs. Basically the gist is use Retrospect. I can't tell from the text if Retrospect is bundled with OS X or not. After doing some research on the Dantz website I think that Retrospect sounds like a fine package. It would be nice if the text would show what it is capable of and how to use it instead of just saying that it's the most widely used backup software for the Mac. Also, coming from the Unix side I was suprised that Unix tools such as tar didn't even get a mention.
All in all I think that a Mac server running OS X could very well serve my company's needs. I just need to look elsewhere for my information.
2 Ton of Technical Tips
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.
3 Useful for learning & setting up system.
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.
4 Too techy and not logically organized
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."
5 either surf chat groups or buy David Pogue's O'Reilley text
Lots of fluff here. If the author had given actual tips and tricks, and technical detail as to why and how things work, AND how to fix them when they go wrong, rather than continuously extolling Mac OS X's capabilities, then I might recommend this book. Instead, he drones ad nauseam about Mac 10's virtues.
A convenient browse at the library one afternoon for 2 hours of David Pogue's 'Mac OS X: The Missing Manual' provided me with numerous hints and tips that I was able to use immediately. The two books cost and weigh the same, yet the ratio of useful text to overall text in Mr. Pogue's book is nearly one, while I'd be hard pressed to even rate Mr. Feiler's text with 0.3. Text size is somewhat smaller in Mr. Pogue's book too, so you're getting lots more information, at a much higher degree of informativeness/utility.
Why did I bother buying this book? It was the only one in the computer store when I bought my iBook! Drat!!
6 Too General for Most Mac OS X Users
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.'
7 Not as "Complete" as I was hoping for...
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.
8 The "Complete Reference" is not quite complete
Jesse Feiler's "Mac OS X:The Complete Reference" includes most of the basic information necessary
to operate Mac OS X presented in a clean, organized fashion. It covers all of the features of the original release of the OS and serves its pupose as a basic reference for a new user. The book also touches on the underpinnings of the operating system (Carbon, Cocoa, etc.).
What is missing is troubleshooting information. The book assumes OS X is in good working order. It gives little advice as to how to deal with installation problems, incompatibility problems, or anything that requires repair.
If you are looking for what is basically an extended owner's manual that explains the features of OS X, this book does a good job. But if you want to troubleshoot, repair, or otherwise tweek OS X (ala "Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters" and "Mac Secrets"), you should wait for one of the newer books based on OS X.1.
9 Save your money for a different book
I am afraid that I found this book to be inaccurate in some areas, such as sharing, and also lacking in technical information. Its a paperweight. 800 Pages of fluff.
10 Very disappointing
If you're looking for a book to help make the move from mastery of OS 9 to mastery of OS X, this is not it. This thing is 600 pages of the totally obvious (told in excruciating detail), 100 pages of programming info (too shallow for the expert, too obscure for the novice), and 50 pages of Unix stuff thrown in for "completeness" (again, too shallow for the Unix guru, too obscure for the Unix newcomer). Pretty much a complete waste of money.
11 I am afraid I concur with the negative reviews
This book spends a lot of time on the obvious.
My two main complaints are:
1. Very shallow, almost useless treatment of the terminal application. This is a unix machine. The GUIs for the most part are self-explanatory. I need to know how to use this particular flavor of unix, how to compile code, etc. Something about the peculiarities of the root structure, unusual commands like "open", how to set up an NFS network, X-windows, and other unixy things would have been helpful. I am still looking for such a book but will be cautious about spending my money.
2. For GUI applications like MAIL, the entire chapter explained the obvious, but very little was there for the harder part of configuring and setting preferences. I still don't know how to sort my saved messages into files having individual user names, how to import from other programs (pine, etc). Sure would have been nice. Ditto for NETINFO. This thing is crucial. Also they should at least tell you how to establish a root account. Many of us actually do want to use this computer for computing.
12 Mostly a beginners book
This is the kind of book beginners love, but experienced users hate. Existing users will know 90% of what is here, best to just go browse it in a bookstore or buy it, scan it and send it back if your library doesn't have it. Though this book is MUCH better than the quicky books that compete with it on the shelf, it is very hard to justify this kind of money for what is here. I think the author should do an advanced book for the rest of us.
13 The Complete Reference?
I am not sure who this book was wriiten for. If you can start your computer and open an application then most of this book will be useless to you. Before you purchase this book look in the index for some common tasks you know how to do in OS 9.0. For instances taking a screen shot, burning data CD's, and networking with non macs are not listed in the index. Things that are indexed are in such broad detail you won't get it done following Jesse's book.
14 stays on the surface
I was looking for a book, that gave me some insights on the combination of the Apple user interface with the inner workings of Unix.
This book has over 750 pages and a lot of screenshots and it explains the user interface.
But I expected some Unix insights, there are none.
15 Title should be "The Almost Complete Reference--"
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.
16 Very good reference for beginners
This book is a very complete reference for a novice in Mac OS X (as I am). It has a good historical recount about the develop of this new OS. The chapters are very readable and very understable. It has a good layout and the terms and concepts are clearly explained.
17 Useless for power users
This book looks great on the surface, but it's not. Most of it is simply a longwinded explanation of the basics, and the advanced section is far to short and lacks too much detail. Take the section on programming: what's the point? It's so short, it's not going to do much of anything for you.
Also, from what I read, the author clearly doesn't understand object-oriented programming very well. He says that OOP-based programs should avoid using 'if' constructs. OOP or not, how can a program possibly be written without flow control?
Not recommended at all for advanced users and beginners who want to become advanced users.
18 A dreadful book
I anxiously awaited a book on OS X wanting to learn the ins and outs of the new OS and its UNIX underpinnings. Bit inside, I found long, detailed discussions of basic, operating system functionality like saving documents and such. Wading through this oh so basic stuff goes on for 600 pages. The best part was a discussion of AppleWorks where I actually learned something. Finally, I reached the UNIX part and all that appears is a short list of commands and descriptions. There are no examples. There is nothing to help you use UNIX. Out of 700 pages, I found, perhaps, 50 that were somewhat useful. And for what I wanted, I found nothing. Literally, I have never been so disappointed in a book.
19 Too much basic stuff
This book has a large section on AppleScript, AppleWorks and Quicktime. It needs to focus more on the OS X system and interface. Not much on the command line, not enough to learn the "tricks" of OS X. I rate this book as a good Mac OS X introduction for someone how does not use the Mac very often. This is not a book for the Power User.
20 Extensive, but shallow
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.
21 Highly recommended.
Helpful and thorough, contains everything you need to know. I like having one source for the Mac OS X info I need.
22 Bad design and weak writing; good technical info
There's nothing wrong with the technical information in this volume. What is missing is good book design and good editing. The book is unnecessarily repetitious and it is impossible to follow the outline easily without keeping one finger in the table of contents. A trained editor would have made use of the many possibled variations of type fonts to clearly distinguish main points from sub points. All levels are in the same face, same style, with miniscule size differences. Whatever happened to ALL CAPS, italic, caps and little caps, underline, and the other possibilities? I don't expect this to read like a novel, but neither should it be difficult! Or tedious! (It's both!)
23 A Good Beginners Reference
Just a warning: Mac OSX is still evolving. It has already been updated several times, just in the last 2 months. Each update has slightly changed the interface as well as the beneath-the-surface operation of the operating system.
Additionally, new utilities are being released every day to customize and streamline the interface of OSX.
As a result, the information in this book and in similar books is likely to be dated and somewhat inaccurate.
That doesn't prevent the book from being a good introduction to OSX, but you should consider these factors if you plan on working with OSX frequently and you're looking for a comprehensive reference.
24 Nice book for a new Mac User
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.
25 Good book
I found out what I wanted to know. That's not such a big deal--except it doesn't seem to happen very often!
26 Very good book about everything you could ever ask!
This book introduces you to OS X, with a complete walkthrough of nearly every feature OS X has to present. It will be valuable to Wintel users too, because the introduction to Macs is done very professional. It treats every user the same, and it does just what it's supposed to do, namely as a complete reference, in which I think it does very well. The book is also based on version 10.0.2 as of this writing, which makes all those other books written for the beta version old and outdated. You won't find better books about OS X !!!
27 Just what I needed
I finally installed OS X because of this. It works fine, and there's enough of the book left to work through to keep me busy for a long time! Unfortunately, the section on iMovie and digital Image capture is going to be very expensive. I WANT THOSE TOYS!!!!!
28 This should be OSX for dummies Plus
I got this book in and it appears that 75 percent of the material covered in the book should be a natural for a regular Mac user. I was expecting a little more for the money.
