Running Mac OS X Panther

by James Duncan Davidson

Apple has shown no mercy to the Macintosh power user---that dedicated individual who knows their Mac inside and out: what makes it tick, and what makes it tick better. In the rapid evolution of Mac OS... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596005008
• ISBN13: 9780596005009
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A straightforward and clear intro to the command line.

The book is a little on the expensive side, but it's well worth it. Of all the OS X books I've picked up over the years this was the most straightforward and clear. I would consider it an introductory to intermediate book for those who are just learning how to navigate their Mac via the terminal. The author's explanations of what a bash profile is and how to create cron jobs are the first such explanations of these topics that have ever made sense to me. I had encountered tutorials online that have attempted to do the same thing, but they were never as direct and thorough as the advice in this book. It was great fun to learn the topics and put my education to use on my own Macs. My only complaints were a couple of editing errors that would be obvious enough if one is paying attention. Other than that, this is a fantastic book; worthy of your money.

A good 'shop manual' for OS X Panther

Many years ago I bought a second hand Ford Cortina in dubious condition. I kept it running with the assistance of a marvelous volume purchased at a specialist bookstore that was referred to as "the shop manual." It wasn't much help teaching you how to drive or how to park but if you needed to know how to perform an oil change, flush the radiator or bleed the brakes it told you all the details. Now James Duncan Davidson has given me a shop manual for Macintosh OS X Panther. This volume assumes you know how to use your Mac, how to perform all the routine changes that are easily accomplished with the GUI. Davidson also assumes you don't want to know how to get a movie running as your desktop, or get an Exposé blob floating on the screen or any of the usual sort of 'hacks' or 'hints.' What he gives is a good guide to lifting the hood and performing serious mechanical work or tweaking the performance of your Mac with enough background information so that you can feel confident taking your own steps. It was good after a few near misses to read an O'Reilly book that was once again well written, well edited, tight and crammed full of information pitched at just the right level. Davidson has done an excellent job with this book. Davidson starts with a little history, and from the viewpoint he presents, this is not a waste of space; he spends his time explaining exactly how we arrived at the current version of the Mac OS. Then we have a chapter titled "Lay of the Land" that explores the file system, including both the Finder view and the view you get from the command line. It also explains the four file system domains and the 'Library' directory. The third chapter is a quick (20 pages) look at the Terminal and shell. Then we get 'Part II: Essentials,' which is the 120-page core of the book. This starts off, logically, with system startup and the login (and log out and shutdown). This is followed by short chapters on users and groups, files and permissions, monitoring, scheduling and preferences and defaults before a marvelous long chapter on the file system. Davidson goes into great detail and closely covers each of the topics, making sure that you get all the details not just 'recipes.' Part III ("Advanced Topics") starts with a chapter on Open Directory that I found particularly useful. It includes coverage on Kerberos and single sign-on that explains it well, as well as the command-line Open Directory tools. The chapter on printing could have had a bit more guts. It covers the obvious but leaves out such joys as CUPS apart from a half-page sidebar; since sharing printers has caused me more than a little grief I would have appreciated more detail here. The final chapter on networking is better, and provides more useful detail. It must be said that this section concentrates more on user level detail and leaves out real information on server level software and options. Given the target group for this book, and that a book has to draw a line somewher

Most accessible of O'Reilly's OS X books

This is a work for those who don't mind getting into the Terminal and into the internals of their Apple. The book has an interesting mix of coverage of the GUI and then the corresponding Unix layer. This dual coverage brings the topics covered home quite nicely. Some of the topics covered are; the Terminal, process control, file access, startup handling, printing and networking.I consider this the most accessible of the recent crop of O'Reilly OS X books on Panther. If you are a reasonably skilled end-user or engineering looking to get under the covers of your Apple this is probably your best bet.

A dangerous book :)

I first opened my Powerbook just over a year ago. That special gas they store under the keyboard sprayed out, I breathed in, and I was hooked. I've gone from being a ten-year Linux user to being a Mac newbie, and I'm loving it. My Powerbook is my primary machine: I even typeset our two latest books on it. For me it's an ideal combination of convenience and power. I can use the nice GUIs when I want, but underneath it all there's a Unix heart and the command line. Except...It isn't just Unix. There's a whole new world of stuff waiting for users like me who only recently drank the Apple kool-aid. I'm not used to the various configuration schemes, the various databases for user-level information are obscure, and so on.And that's where JDD's book comes in. I was lucky enough to be a reviewer, and I just lapped it up. It is packed with information on all aspects of Panther, ranging from the high-level down to the lowest level nitty-gritty detail. The chapters are just the right length: tight enough to keep you reading, but not so small that they miss out on the details you need.The only bad thing? If you're like me, you'll spend hours experimenting with all the new stuff you learn while reading this book.A must have for power Panther users.

Invaluable!

I consider this book to be the ideal companion to "The Missing Manual". Indeed, "Running Mac OS X Panther" is the Red Pill for Mac OS X users because it takes you beneath the applications into the Panther underworld where all the interesting stuff happens. I found the depth of the book's content to be truly unique. From Panther's killer app -- the Terminal -- to working with Open Directory, reading through the book was a journey that quickly transformed me from a mainstream Mac junkie into an enlightened power user.Take the Red Pill. You'll be glad you did.