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Mac OS X Unleashed (2nd Edition) 93

Posted by timothy from the rabid-in-cupertino dept.
emmastory writes "Mac OS X Unleashed is not a pocket guide. It's more of a massive tome than anything else - at over 1500 pages, it's probably the heaviest technical book I own. (And that's including Deitel & Deitel's C: How to Program.) Since Mac OS X Unleashed describes itself as 'a complete guide and reference for Mac OS users,' my biggest question when approaching the book was whether this is in fact the case. It seems like if you're going to shell out for an OS X book of this size and price, then it should ideally be the only OS X book you'll have to buy."
Mac OS X Unleashed (2nd Edition)
author John Ray, William C. Ray
pages 1560
publisher Sams
rating 7/10
reviewer Emma Story
ISBN 0672324652
summary A massive book that aims to be a complete OS X reference

What I Liked
There's no shortage of good things about Unleashed, but the best is probably that the authors assume, for the most part,that you already know how to use your computer. Although there are many good books out there for those new to Macs, this is not one of them and does not try to be. That means that if you've already achieved a basic working knowledge of Mac OS, there's still well over a thousand pages of information intended especially for you. A line from another review of Unleashed (posted anonymously on Amazon) that rang particularly true after reading the book: "If you're looking for a book that says 'this is called a mouse' and tells you where to find iTunes in order to click on it, or drops the bombshell that command-p will print in many applications, you don't need this volume, but if you want to get your hands dirty, it's an excellent resource."

However, I can understand that many people do want the basics in an OS X book. In fact, another Amazon reviewer makes this very point: "Coverage of the iApps is far less than it should be, and there isn't enough information for a novice user like myself. I thought the author spent far too much time on the UNIX and Terminal side of Jaguar and not enough on the real-world tips that I've found in other books." Still, I personally don't really see that as a problem. There are plenty of real-world tips as long as your real world involves a shell, and if there's one thing I've never needed a book for, it's the iApps. In fact, I've always found it irritating that other OS X books spend so much time on them. But that's me, and I'm not everyone.

There were several sections of the book that surprised me, including the chapter on web programming. It makes sense, though - the book is intended to "unleash" OS X, after all, and OS X does come with an Apache installation (even if System Preferences calls it Personal Web Sharing). Given that every OS X box has a webserver, it makes sense that many OS X users would want to know more about related topics. In fact, the chapters that focus on system and network administration comprise a pretty thorough introduction to the BSD side of OS X, and were fairly impressive. These were my favorite sections of the book, probably because they're topics rarely dealt with - or at least rarely dealt with well - in Mac books.

What I Didn't Like
The book suffers from some minor issues typical of most massive technical volumes - it's informative, but also dry, dense, and not terribly readable. Also, while I appreciate the depth and scope of the book, it is a little unwieldy. This isn't something you'll be reading in bed or on the subway. It's not a cheap book, either - its list price is $50. These problems are neither hugely important nor terribly surprising, but they're also not inevitable - reference texts can be thorough without being dull, it's just that this one happens to be both.

Probably the only other real complaint I have with the book is that at times it seems as though it can't decide who its audience is. As I mentioned above, one of the things I liked about Unleashed was that most of the book seems firmly aimed at the intermediate to experienced user. And yet if that's the case, then the chapters that cover things like Desktop Accessories (Calculator, Clock, Key Caps) seem out of place. It doesn't seem like the introductory material offered in the book would really be enough to serve as a tutorial for an absolute beginner (as evidenced by complaints like the one I quoted earlier), but at the same time it's difficult to figure out who else would need it. However, I'm not suggesting they skimped on advanced topics to squeeze in inappropriate Clock coverage - if there's one thing this book has, it's plenty of everything.

The Bottom line
I believe that Unleashed does live up to its title, and does a good job in the process. It's not an introduction to OS X - it's about getting more out of your system after you've already learned the basics. It doesn't (usually) try to be a beginner's book, but a quick-learning novice would probably do fine with it, and any moderately experienced Mac user will probably find that it serves his or her purposes effectively and efficiently. If given the choice (and funding), I'd probably still go with a couple different books, but I think Unleashed has in fact reached its goal of being a complete guide to OS X. You could do just fine with only this book, and at $50 it may be cheaper than buying a couple smaller books separately.

And Furthermore
Other reviews and sources of information on the book:

You can purchase the Mac OS X Unleashed from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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Mac OS X Unleashed (2nd Edition) More

Mac OS X Unleashed (2nd Edition)

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  • Big Book (Score:2, Funny)

    by LordSkippy ( 140884 )
    Something that size should only be used for hand-to-hand combat

  • not a pocket guide? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Horny Smurf ( 590916 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:03PM (#6273922) Journal
    Is that Mac OS X Unleashed (Second Edition) in your pocket, or are you just really really really happy to see me?
  • ...but isn't the point of Mac OS X such that one doesn't need a manual?

    yes; i'm on a mac powerbook right now :-)
    • umm, yeah just as much as any BSD doesn't need manual.

    • An analogy (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 )
      You can buy a car and drive it - or, you can get shop manuals and other guides to really alter how it works for increased performance.

      Not a great analogy, but that's how I see it.

    • Re:Neat... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No, the point is you don't need a manual, but if you want to dig deeper you can. Eg., if you want to set up a firewall, the GUI makes it very simple...but if you want more complicated rules, you can dip into the unix shell and have as much control as if you were running any other unix. (Unlike Windows, where if it's not in the GUI, it's not there at at all.)
      • >No, the point is you don't need a manual, but if you want to dig deeper you can.

        How is this different from any other OS then? I would have expected that if its an option/setting then it is in the GUI. Why wouldn't it be?

        >Unlike Windows, where if it's not in the GUI, it's not there at at all.)

        Never edited a registry before?

    • Re:Neat... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jeremy Erwin ( 2054 )
      Nah, A lot of stuff in MacOSX isn't common sense.
      Here's two questions I've had in the past week.
      1. My modem is stuck permanently in "Disconnecting mode" and fails to respond to reset attempts. How do I abort the soft modem program and restart it?
      2. Is there a way to switch between user modes, ala (init [1-6] on linux?
  • Does it speak to the automounter issues, or the fact that apple doesnt support automounter. Wish it would. It would be nice to have a Real unix box instead of a hobbled one.

  • But, what about Panther ??? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by T40 Dude ( 668317 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:04PM (#6273936)
    The Steve will be announcing the release of the next iteration of OSX, Panther, for September of this year. Apparently there are quite a few "under the hood" changes in Panther. How much of the book will need to be rewritten, or at least modified ???
    • I think there would only be a few chapters to add, though the pictures for the Finder might all be off, from the screenshots I've seen.

      However, the people who buy this book are the types who only upgrade their OS by buying a new machine. They demand to be led through things step by step and aren't interested in tech for tech's sake. That's just their personality and behavior, something to take into account when you design a system.
    • That's one problem with books...is they always will be outdated! There is nothing you can do about that...by the time the Panther book is finished, the next Mac OS X will be on its way out

      However, that doesn't mean the Apache section will be useless...also, you will likely understand the enough about the system to be able to understand which changes have been made after Jaguar...
    • Well, I happened to stumble across this a day or so ago. The Panther edition [amazon.com] is already in the works and should be out in November.

      I have the 10.1 first edition book, and already wish i had the second edition. I guess i'll just wait for the third edition.

      Sure would be nice if you could "upgrade" your book, and just get the changes/extra chapters for less than $50.

  • huh? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Horny Smurf ( 590916 )
    Is this a review of the book, or a review of the Amazon.com reviews of the book?

    I won't even mention the irony of the bn.com link to buy the book.

    • Or the fact that Amazon sells it for $5 less [amazon.com] than BN?

      I noticed that Amazon is taking orders for Mac OS X Panther Unleashed, Third Edition (undiscounted).

  • Oh the agony! (Score:2, Funny)

    by dre80 ( 613210 ) *
    Don't do that to me again.... Here I am eagerly awaiting details on MacOS X 10.3 (Panther), on the day that said details were promised, and I see the Apple topic icon with a title like "Mac OS X Unleashed". I click on it and find this book review, now that's just cruel!!!

  • What about "power users" of other systems? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RevDobbs ( 313888 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:06PM (#6273961) Homepage

    I've known several people who were very familiar with PC's (both MS & UNIX OSes) but couldn't bridge that to Mac's... If the book isn't suitable for a complete novice, how well suited is it for Apple novices?

    • Re:What about "power users" of other systems? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by XnetZERO ( 560391 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:32PM (#6274221)
      How can you be familiar with a PC and not use a Mac? This always blows me away. Maybe Macs set their users up to be more experimentive, because I don't know many Mac users that can't use a PC. But Windows users see an unfamiliar GUI and they freeze like a deer in headlights. Unleashed isn't meant for novice computer users. It would be cruel and they wouldn't be able to comprehend it, sorta like handing a Harry Potter Fanatic the Lord of the Rings.
      • Maybe Macs set their users up to be more experimentive, because I don't know many Mac users that can't use a PC.

        The "more experamentative" is probably true. Small changes on a Mac are far less likely to break your system beyond your ability to revert them, so Mac users aren't conditioned to "Don't touch anything!" the way most Windows users are.

        But a simpler reason is just that there are a lot more Windows boxes out there than Macs. Mac users are forced to use Windows at work, in libraries, at a friend's h

      • How can you be familiar with a PC and not use a Mac?

        How do you set default programs for different file types? The whole concept of file associations are completly different in a Mac than they are in Windows.

        How come email attachements from Mac come with two identically named files? Or files with out extensions on them? The Mac FS's metadata tends to throw off Windows users, as does the (sometimes) lack of a file extension.

        That's the biggest problem I can think of at the moment... maybe it's not muc

          • How do you set default programs for different file types? ... How come email attachements from Mac come with two identically named files? Or files with out extensions on them?
          Well, don't just leave us hanging! Since I plan on buying a PowerBook eventually (perhaps by the end of the year), it'd be handy to know the answers to those questions :).

        • How do you set default programs for different file types? The whole concept of file associations are completly different in a Mac than they are in Windows

          Actually, in OS X file associations are very similar to those in Windows, Mac OS 9 and earlier however where a different matter. With OS X you can however change individual files of the same file type to open in non-default apps, which is cool! (BTW to do this right-click (or ctrl-click for those single button people) the file and select "Get Info" fro

      • sorta like handing a Harry Potter Fanatic the Lord of the Rings

        I know it's off topic, but I just saw an interview on Today with Stephen King, who said he is a very big fan of both Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. He also said that the 5th Harry Potter book out-grossed the number one movie, "The Hulk," which were both released this weekend. J.K. Rowling has a lot more to offer than comes out in the movies, especially in the last 2 books, which I hope you have read before making assumptions about t

      • Actually I think it's much simpler than that. I ran into this problem when my mom was shopping for a new computer a couple years ago. I tried to convince her that a mac would be much easier to use and less prone to problems (I have owned both macs and PCs), but she just didn't like them.

        Basically, her reason was, she had a mac at work in the office (she's a teacher, so she doesn't use it regularly), and she just couldn't get used to the different way to close windows or open programs. Simple things like
    • And what kind of book would meet that type of user's need? Of course this book is not going to inform you of Mac OS X GUI idiosyncrasies, nor would a book like that be worth more than $5.

      Anyone who knows how to use UNIX and Windows needs only do one thing to become proficient on a Mac: use it on a regular basis. Once you dedicate the week or so it takes to get used to OS X, then buy this book and you can read about the stuff for which a power user actually needs a reference.

      In retrospect, this must be a

  • warning (Score:2, Informative)

    by Horny Smurf ( 590916 )
    I skimmed through this book last week at a brick and mortar barnes and noble.

    I couldn't find any mention of property lists or xml config files. Most hidden features and settings can only be activated by editing the configuration file manually, but they negelct to even discuss the format.

  • This book is great! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:13PM (#6274037)
    It even comes with an extra mouse button and a CD full of those files you were trying to copy from your 8600!

    *runs*

  • OS XXIII will probly be hitting the shelves, so what's the point?

  • Worthless? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rice_web ( 604109 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:15PM (#6274055)
    I'd almost be ready to suggest that this is worthless; one can simply go online and read a manual or a forum and find, usually, more information than the book.

    However, there's nothing quite like having the text right there. With my PHP book, I know that PHP.net has more information, but my book has a great index, and I can find information more easily. In the case of Mac OS X Unleashed, you have a great publishing company, and likely the most complete reference guide available, all without scouring the internet.

  • Unleashed in general (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cmang ( 103268 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:16PM (#6274069)
    I own a couple of Unleashed books. While they tend to cover many different topics, they only seem to barely touch them. Not a lot of real useful detail on deployment of applications, at least not enough for my purposes. I haven't seen this particular book, and that's just what my personal experience with Linux Unleashed and others has been - take that as you'd like.
    If anyone has different experiences with them, by all means :).
    • I do own Mac OS X Unleashed (2nd ed.) and do find it sad to say that it does fall prey to the above fallacies. After thumbing through Mac OS X in a Nutshell, I would have to recommend it instead of the Unleashed title. Although not covering as many topics, I found it tended to go to greater depths to explain certain principles. But that is just me...
    • I feel for you - they look useful at first glance but I have browsed through several 'Unleashed' books and found them to unilaterally be just a shade north of useless. In fact the last time I was in Chapters I saw Red Hat 7.1 Unleashed, Red Hat 7.2 Unleashed and Red Hat 7.3 Unleashed all side by side on the shelf. It really smelled like a publisher rushing a book to the shelf just to have the latest and greatest version number on it.

      O'Reilly's Running Linux doesn't need nearly that many updates and is f

  • [offtopic] On Apple's site: (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.mac.com/1/pantherpreview.html

    Apple is givin' us a preview of the new Finder themselves (blech, I don't like brushed metal}, just some fifty minutes before the keynote.

    Sorry, stupid me, can't get the url right it seems...

  • I have one rule. (Score:3, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:20PM (#6274104) Journal
    No book should be larger than the hardware it is about.

  • recently looked at Unleashed Guides by Sam (Score:3, Interesting)

    by stonebeat.org ( 562495 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:22PM (#6274129) Homepage
    I recently looked at Unleashed Guides by Sam Publishing, and I think they seems losing quality. There books about 5 years back were pretty good.
    I guess one of the poblem is apps/OSes are getting more and more complicated, and it is just not possible for everything to be covered successfully in 1 volume. Do other poeple think similarly????

  • I'm not everyone? How do we know? (Score:3, Funny)

    by slug_bait ( 118345 ) on Monday June 23, 2003 @12:42PM (#6274301)
    In paragraph two, you end by asserting that you are not everyone, but you fail to back up that statement with any experimental evidence. How do you expect us to believe that you are not everyone if you don't back it up with any data? I'm lost...
  • I've got the first edition of this book and I love it! Would I get the 2nd edition? well, if the company pays, why not! :D Seriously though, the only thing that annoyed me about the first edition was the frontmost part of the book was all about the GUI, which, well, I was not interested in. I wanted to learn the Terminal side of things, which it taught me, ok, so I'm no uber-unix geek now or anything, but I can rm -rf with the best of them :D
  • Reading the review makes me wonder if this Unleashed book is as bad as the Linux Unleashed book I wasted $50 on several years ago.

    Linux Unleashed was little more than a re-printing of the Linux man pages and other trivially-accessible information. It was so little help beyond what I already had that I regretted buying it, and it proved to me that the publisher wanted to put forth as little effort as possible for my money.

    Ever since, I have regarded the "Unleashed" books as an insult to the trees used in

  • Some OSX Books in pdf format here [mac.com]

  • Nice review, but I think that Mac OS X In a Nutshell [amazon.com] which I reviewed here [slashdot.org] is a better book.

    To quote from that review, I thought that the Unleashed book was "not as well structured and has a wordier, less terse and technical style. It's also more expensive and twice the size and weight."

    I agree with previous comments that the "Unleashed" series is starting to lose its quality edge.I usually like books from SAMS, in fact I've raved about both editions of PHP & MySQL Web Development [amazon.com], and don't like to

  • I gotta say, that C: How to program book was the most useful collection of dead trees i've encountered in this life or any other... I picked the thing up at the end of '98 as I was shopping for Uni books, and went from practically no C programming knowledge (although I had done a lot of asm programming on 8 bit platforms many years earlier) to being able to code reasonably competently in the space of maybe five days.

    I credit this book with giving me the ability to show up half an hour before the end of a 3

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