Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther 284
| Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther | |
| author | Dave Taylor and Brian Jepson |
| pages | 168 |
| publisher | O'Reilly Publishing |
| rating | 8 |
| reviewer | Kevin Spencer |
| ISBN | 0596006179 |
| summary | Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther is a good tool for those who are generally comfortable with the original Mac OS or Mac OS X, but not the Unix command line. Most of the content would not interest the traditional programmer, Linux, BSD, or other UNIX jockey, however. The Finder can't do it all, and it's a good idea to realize that today's Mac OS has more ways to force it to work than its original version. This 3rd edition of the book has a better audience focus than previous editions. |
This book focuses on those of us in the Mac OS professional world who have become Unix system admins by default with the introduction of OS X, and could stand to have a handy UNIX reference nearby, particularly if the Finder freezes in Apple's latest version of their BSD/OpenStep blend of a UNIX operating system.
As the authors explain in the book, the best justification for understanding and using the UNIX components present is Mac OS X is the same as in any other UNIX-family operating system: power and control. The Finder (Mac OS X's graphical desktop manager) can't do everything, so this book provides information to help power users and technicians resolve issues, install software, or create an optimized experience, all through the Terminal.
Chapters 1 and 2 provide a very helpful tutorial on the Mac OS X Terminal application, from showing the benefits of customizing the Terminal, the concept of shells, UNIX command syntax, and other obscure but useful settings that strengthen the power of the application when accessing the BSD innards of Mac OS X. Arguably, these two chapters are the strongest guide on Mac OS X's Terminal application (as it relates to its UNIX roots) that I have seen in any Mac OS X book to date.
Chapters 3 and 4 handle understanding of the UNIX filesystem, administration and superuser access, privileges, handling external volumes, file and directory names and the like. Mac OS X, while a BSD at heart, doesn't map out everything in a traditional UNIX-style directory format--at least, not from the Finder's view. Through the Terminal, a user can see the underlying, otherwise-hidden UNIX directories. The authors go through some basic but very helpful situations such as changing file and owner permissions, which can be changed from the Finder with greater ease in Panther, but not with the same finesse as done from a command line.
The file management chapter moves readers through the classic commands for moving, editing, and copying files from the command line, which can be very helpful for administrators of Mac OS X systems who must attempt repairs by SSH, for instance, and don't have access to the usual graphical elements that generally make Mac OS usage so easy. The authors don't pick sides in the vi vs. pico debate, and just offer the basic instructions on how to use either for your editing.
The book continues with the same level of complexity that local system admins or power users require in issues such as printing via CUPS, handling processes that the Finder doesn't show, using the X11 application, using Fink (a Debian-style installation application) installing OpenOffice and GIMP, using FTP and secure shell, using Pine and Lynx, and more.
For a book of just 168 pages, the authors pack quite a bit on making a Mac OS X system work from its Terminal roots. New Mac OS X system administrators will find this book most useful, particularly if their UNIX experience is lacking or radically different from what Mac OS X presents. Experienced *NIX users who bought a new Mac may find the book a good intermediary to demonstrate how Mac OS X Panther differs from the *NIX boxen they've used in the past.
You can purchase Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
what about Mac OS for *nix geeks? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've gotten a shiny new iMac with OS X.3 on it, and I'm still learning the ropes. I'm slightly amazed at all the wierdnesses I can do with it, you can script almost anything with Applescript, and there's a million little details that do wierd shit, or behave as I'm not used to. So where is the Learning Mac OS X for the unix geek? The unix and mac world is so divided on the machine, yet works together seemlessly.
I haven't had my coffee yet, I'll ramble on about my experiences with Mac OS X elsewhere. But my question remains: what are good books/resources for the person who is already a unix geek?
Anybody seen a hardcore unix book for Mac admins? (Score:4, Interesting)
Useful information, but to whom? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think a Unix for MacOS publication would be useful for those migrating to Apple from some (any) other platform. For casual Mac users? No way is this going to be of any use to them. If they were so inclined, they'd already have some experience on another OS by now.
Re:"vi vs pico" debate... (Score:4, Interesting)
there you go
Although I use nano [nano-editor.org] now since it is available seperately from Pine and is released under the GPL.
Re:Apple already provides an excellent tool (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Useful information, but to whom? (Score:2, Interesting)
So it's shouldn't be a shock that longtime Mac users have a gross adversion to commandline features.
That being said, OS X has some borderline suck, not because it has a commandline, but because there's there's a lot of tools that ship with the system (Apache, Samba, etc) that don't have a configuration GUI and must be configured "the Unix way" (which Mac users will instinctively hate).
So...if someone on the Internet wanted to hack my computer, could they open up one of these 'terminals' and use 'telnet' to hack into my Mac
This is worded stupidly, but the US Army chose MacOS for their webservers partially because it does not even have the possibility of a remote shell, which makes it much more difficult to penetrate.
vice versa? (Score:3, Interesting)
Argh! It's "Mac," NOT "MAC" (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:very useful (Score:5, Interesting)
> Just because someone works mainly with a GUI doesn't mean
> that they are not able to comprehend the command-line.
How true!. I've been a mac girl for 15 years or more, a choice I made from the sheer superiority of the mac gui when I started in prepress, in the 1980s. Nothing touched it then, though many other OSs have caught up and are just as usable today. It's experience that kept me employed, well paid and doing what I love. I got hold of OS X and nutted through cli stuff for a few years now, and use it sometimes and the gui sometimes. You're right, they're both tools that do a job, some can be done best in one, some best in either, and some don't matter one way or the other.
I hadn't touched a cli since DOS days, and even then I knew little more than dir, copy, cd and format. Now I co-admin my employer's non-X crippled linux servers. Most people are intelligent enough, and to me what counts more than experience is interest. I think if someone's interested enough to open terminal.app and poke around then it's just a matter of learning.
That's what brains are for, and we all have them!
Transitioning from OS9 - XP or OSX? Easiest? (Score:3, Interesting)
My question is this, given that a non-technical person's experienced with both OS9 and XP, which is easier? To transition completely to XP, or to attempt to learn the new and different OSX? I don't think she's ever willingly opened a command prompt in her life.
Re:Transitioning from OS9 - XP or OSX? Easiest? (Score:5, Interesting)
But just in case, buy him/her a book like this for next birthday or valentine. Maybe he/her will finally like it? Just imagine this kind of foreplay: you and your SO together in bed, doing *things* on two powerbooks connected via Airport...