Mac OS X in a Nutshell

by Chuck Toporek, Chris Stone, Jason McIntosh

Mac OS X is a stunning technical achievement--a virtually crash-proof Unix core paired with the sleek Aqua interface, bringing style, usability, and stability to a new level. It has almost everything... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596003706
• ISBN13: 9780596003708
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 826 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.6" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book for technical OS X converts

It must be difficult when writing a book for 'power users' to decide what exactly needs to be put in and what can be safely left out. This volume does the job quite well, covering the simple stuff quickly and early while devoting a great deal of its 750 pages to topics of more interest to serious users of Apple's new(ish) operating system. It also declares its audience early, the preface devotes a page to explaining the target audience and states it is 'aimed at folks with a more technical bent than the average user--the power user.The GistMac OS X In A Nutshell is quite well structured, and organized into into 5 parts. The first is a quick overview of the Macintosh GUI. The second part, "System Configuration," is mainly devoted to getting the system running well (covering preferences, networking, the file system and Java). The third section, "System and Network Administration," is a good guide to several lower-level tasks, including an excellent chapter on directory services and NetInfo. The fourth is about development, including Apple's IDE "Project Builder" and CVS. The final part covers the Unix underpinnings of OS X and X Windows. This includes a Unix command reference of over 200 pages.The GoodThe book is also well written, with light, easily understood prose and some good screen dumps, tables and diagrams to make some of the more complex points easily understood. I appreciate the detailed contents section, good quality index and black chapter tabs at the side of each page for finding the information I need.Everything seems to be covered, though you may sometimes find yourself needing to go elsewhere for more depth, but this is really only to expected in a book that is trying more for breadth across an entire operating system than depth in one particular area.Despite having used and developed on a Mac for over 15 years and OS X since the late beta stage I still found myself discovering something new and useful every few pages in the book.The BadThe section of the book I appreciated least was the Unix Command Reference. 200 pages, most of which are adequately covered by the online man pages or a quick 'command --help'. Not that it isn't useful having this information on paper, and not that this section isn't more complete than the man pages and less error-ridden. It's just that my favourite operating system has a large number of commands that are hard to find byname alone. Online, I tend to rely on apropos to find what I need. Back when you paid a large amount of money for a Unix license they came with hard copy manuals that included a permuted word index of the same top slug that apropos searches, which made them infinitely more useful. O'Reilly could improve the heck out of this book by giving us the same thing for what I felt was otherwise an almost totally wasted 200 pages (though I admit that the combination of the chapter on NetInfo and the command references for nicl and niutil etc. actually have me now understanding and using NetInfo

A geek's delight

Other reviewers have claimed that this is a great book for all levels of Mac users. Not. If you don't have an informed opinion about the relative merits of vi vs. emacs or don't even know what that means, there are far more appropriate OS X books for you. Pogue's "OS X Missing Manual" or William's "Little OS X Book" come to mind. Consider this; while the Unix command chapter takes up nearly a quarter of the volume there's not a single mention of iTunes. This is not a general purpose Mac book. It is clearly aimed at advanced to expert user who wants to dig into the Unix underpinnings of OS X. At that it is great. The writing is clear, the explanations straightforward. It is well indexed. And it doesn't weigh 10 kg. It is an excellent addition to O'Reilly's Nutshell series, mostly aimed at programmers or system administrators.

A geek's delight

Other reviewers have claimed that this is a great book for all levels of Mac users. Not. If you don't have an informed opinion about the relative merits of vi vs. emacs or don't even know what that means, there are far more appropriate OS X books for you. Pogue's "OS X Missing Manual" or Williams' "Little OS X Book" come to mind. Consider this; while the Unix command chapter takes up nearly a quarter of the volume there's not a single mention of iTunes. This is not a general purpose Mac book. It is clearly aimed at advanced to expert user who wants to dig into the Unix underpinnings of OS X. At that it is great. The writing is clear, the explanations straightforward. It is well indexed. And it doesn't weigh 10 kg. It is an excellent addition to O'Reilly's Nutshell series, mostly aimed at programmers or system administrators.

Best I've seen so far

This is one of the better Nutshell books. At close to 800 pages, it's jam packed with everything you would want to know about OS X. It's current through 10.2, and seems to have been updated as late as January 2003. This is a techy style book. It's not a hold your hand book, but it isn't an entirely dry reference work either. It's something in between, and it is very well done. In addition to a detailed command reference and an extensive faq-like how-to section, there are complete chapters on networking, printing, scripting and development, X windows and more. Very complete, very well written. The command reference section is extensive and seems to be very complete. This isn't just a rehashing of man pages, and doesn't just pick up the most common stuff. I checked for a number of the more obscure Mac OS X specific commands that nobody ever mentions: this book has them. The Development section is more than 100 pages itself. Although I really haven't even started to look at OS X development tools yet, this looks like a very good introduction. Overall, this is the most complete Mac OS X book I've reviewed to date. I definitely recommend it without any hesitation.

If I Only Could Buy Just One Book On OS X

This would be it! Being a big fan of O'Reilly and the Nutshell books, my expectations were very high. And, after reading the blurbs and seeing the table of contents, my expectations rose. Needless to say, my expectations were met, and perhaps, exceeded. This approximately 800pp tome is chock full of information. If you are using OS X purely as an end user, to run apps like Photoshop, and have no inclination to dig deeper, than this book isn't for you. But, if you consider yourself a Power User, or are looking to become a Power User, or just want to have a deeper understanding of what is going on behing the pretty GUI, than this book is for you.The book covers everything from system configuration to UNIX command line interface. It may not be the most complete reference for everything is discusses, but it goes into enough depth to achieve a modest level of comprehension, and if you want more, it points you in the right direction. It gives tips on installing X Windows, recommends some window managers (note, this was written before Apple's own X11 software became available in beta form), and even talks about how to get, install, and use Fink.It also covers Netinfo, and how it differs from regular UNIX config files. And, not only does it discuss when, how, and why, but also how not to use Netinfo. Bottomline, I heartily recommend this book for anyone wanting to really understand what is going on, and how to effectively manage your OS X system. I just hope they make an OS X Server version as well.