Jan 31 2003
Mastering MacOS X Second Edition
The first nice thing about this book is that it’s Jaguar ready. There aren’t
that many big thick Mac books that have been updated (the Missing Manual is
all I can think of). I said it was thick, around 840 pages to be exact. It’s
not
something you’d want to keep in your bag for reference… Definately shelf
material.
Here’s how Mastering Mac OS X SE breaks down:
Part 1: The basics
The first 10 chapters (220 pages) are the basics. Most pros should know
this stuff, but if you’re sort of new to X, go ahead and read this section.
It would be a good section for any "switcher".
Part 2: On the Internet
Prett short section, around a 100 pages that covers how to do stuff on the
internet. It tells about configuring X for your connection and goes on to
talk about Sherlock, remote log-in, FTP, iChat and so on. Pretty neat stuff.
A lot of people could use some information about SSH and FTP.
Part 3: Multimedia: Images, Sound, Video
One of the shortest section in the book, but OS X makes graphics easy so
that makes sense. QuickTime is a major topic as well as iTunes, iMovie and
the various DVD and speech programs. Jaguar’s handwriting software dubbed
"Inkwell" is also discussed. It’s pretty much a Digital Hub section. Good
stuff.
Part 4: Networking, Connectivity, and Portables
This is the section where a lot of MacMerc’s can learn. It’s all about doing
that network thing. Most professionals can benefit from networking, but a
lot of times Mac users have to know the stuff because the company IT guy says,
"it can’t be done". Well it can, and it’s in this section. The first chapter
shows how to connect to everything from the iMac next door to a WebDAV server
a half world away. Another major topic (has a whole chapter) is integrating
with other platforms. I loved this chapter. It explains XWindows and various
other über geeky things. X11 changes some of what’s in the book, but it’s
still great. This was a rocking section.
Part 5: Advanced Mac OS X Topics
Most Mac professionals pride themselves on being advanced users… If that
sounds familiar, you’ll love section 5. It starts out with a chapter on Apple
Script which is very handy. Hardly anyone knows AppleScript, but it’s just
plain great stuff. The Terminal is discussed in the next chapter. It’s not
hard to get used to, but if you don’t have a book to follow along with it’s
pretty scary. I remember totally screwing things up a few times back in the
early days
because you know how to master Darwin. It talks about Crontab, shell scripting
and more. Awesome stuff. the next chapter is about serving stuff on the web.
It’s really easy to do with X, but it also goes into CGI, FTP serving, QuickTime
Streaming, and even Samba. Excellent introduction to web serving. My favorite
section of the book by far.
Part 6: Hardware, Troubleshooting, and Maintenance
Most PC guys live and die by hardware. I’ve never really gotten into it,
but sometimes even a software guy like me has to do some hardware fiddlin’.
The first chapter of this section tells how to configure some common hardware
(Airport, External Drives, etc). Since it’s so easy to add stuff to X, this
is a short
chapter.
The next chapter is about hard disk care, file security and maintenance.
Really good stuff… A lot of people need to read and re-read this section.
I can’t explain it all here, but everything from partitioning to backing
up, to getting back your system after a crash is covered. The next chapter
is titled. "Fixing Applications and Managing Classic". I don’t use classic
and my apps don’t break, so this was a skipped chapter. The next chapter
is invaluable to any OS X user. How many times have you had a permission
problem? Ever wonder what that Net Info thing is? Want to get rid of the
spinning
cursor? It’s all covered. Some of the best pages in any OS X book I’ve seen.
Excellent.
Part 7: Appendices
Big thick books aren’t complete without big thick appendices. If you’re
already an OS X user you can skip ‘em. It’s all about switching from classic.
I highly recommend this book. If you want to get more out of your Mac, buy
Mastering OS X! It lists for $39.99 and is every bit worth it, but you can
nab it for $27.99 off
of Amazon.com.
