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Apple Books Media Businesses Book Reviews

Mastering Mac OS X (2nd Ed.) 124

Posted by timothy from the now-heel dept.
honestpuck writes "I've seen a fair number of books for OS X and they range in target audience from the raw beginner such as Mac OS X for Dummies and Robin William's Mac OS X Book through to those for technical readers such as Mac OS X In A Nutshell (IAN)." Read on for honestpucks' review of the new edition of Todd Stauffer's Mastering OS X.
Mastering Mac OS X (2nd Ed.)
author Todd Stauffer
pages 804
publisher Sybex
rating 7
reviewer Tony Williams
ISBN 0782141188
summary Good guide to OS X for intermediate beginners to intermediate users

Mastering Mac OS X falls firmly in the middle. Unlike IAN it spends a fair amount of time on the GUI and a major section is devoted to QuickTime and the iApps. Unlike Robin William's volume it covers high end topics such as AppleScript and the terminal and has a good section on troubleshooting. One thing lacking that I applaud is that it does not have IAN's large chapter summing up Unix commands.

The Good

The book is well structured, divided into 7 sections, 5 of increasing complexity, 'The Mac OS X Basics', 'On The Internet', 'Multimedia: Images Sound, Video', 'Networking, Coonectivity and Portables' and 'Advanced Mac OS X topics' - which covers AppleScript, the Terminal, and various servers including QuickTime, Samba and Sendmail. These are followed by a hardware and troubleshooting section and finally the appendices. The index is good and it has the by now traditional two level table of contents, the first listing just the chapter heads and the second listing all the sub sections as well.

Given that structure, the book touches all the bases and covers all the required topics well.

The writing is not bad, I think a stronger hand with the editing would have done wonders as it tends to the wordy.

The Bad

Once again a certain amount of the early stuff is either below the needs of the target audience or not really required. Oh, and Sybex do have a page for the book which includes a Table of Contents, sample chapter, index and errata but get a load of that URL and the author has a web page for the book but he hasn't touched it in over a year, since before this second edition was published.

Conclusion

It should be said that among all the books in this genre none are badly written, or badly structured. Personally I don't like the style of the 'Dummies' books and so I put it at the bottom of my list but others may not have the same feeling. That said, how do you choose among them? The choice boils down to two things, how close you are to the target audience for a particular book and how well it addresses the target audience. Mastering Mac OS X is targeted at "intermediate beginners (those who have some experience with a graphical operating system) and solidly intermediate to advanced users" according to the Introduction. I think that it covers the needs of the first group well but will probably fall short if you are already an "advanced user." For these people I'd recommend Mac OS X In A Nutshell. If you are a total newbie, then I'd recommend Robin William's Mac OS X Book.

You can purchase Mastering OS X 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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Mastering Mac OS X (2nd Ed.) More

Mastering Mac OS X (2nd Ed.)

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  • I doubt (Score:3, Informative)

    by ike6116 ( 602143 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:02AM (#6057787) Homepage Journal
    anyone in the slashdot audiance would need this kind of book. OS X is intuitive enough, most would benefit from Mac OS X for Unix Geeks (which even then is a very quick skim).

    • Re:I doubt (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Cheetahfeathers ( 93473 )
      Yeah... except that OS X doesn't behave like other UNIX. Want to set up NFS? You're looking at editing some funky database to do it. Want to know which options to use in netinfo for more than a really basic setup? Good luck finding a manpage on that in OS X. The man pages in that OS seriously lack. Just one example of many. Passwords, groups, hosts? Yeah... intuitive.
      • ok, so NetInfo is different, RTFM. And it does behave like another unix (lower caps for unix-like), NeXT ;)
        It's begining to look like NetInfo is out and LDAP is in (maybe in panther). So don't get too attached.
        • I did RTFM.

          man -k netinfo...
          read every single one of them.

          nireport, for instace... examples, less than useless. I still can't get it to do more than
          spit back '#NoValue' to anything.

          niutil -list / /exports
          I don't see the full tree there... no options or anything returned.

          It never properly defines domain or anything. Man pages for these things rather suck.

  • Shouldn't this review be posted under 'Unix'? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:03AM (#6057795)
    I thought SCO owned MacOS...

  • Where's the review? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Drakonian ( 518722 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:04AM (#6057813) Homepage
    Other than talking about the the titles of the chapters, where was the review of the content? Was this it: "Given that structure, the book touches all the bases and covers all the required topics well." ?

  • Er...? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rleyton ( 14248 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:06AM (#6057833) Homepage
    Did I miss the review? Didn't learn anything that a swift glance at the back cover in a bookshop wouldn't have told me.

    C- - Must do better.

  • Or get two ORA books instead... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dub Kat ( 183404 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:08AM (#6057858)
    David Pouge's Mac OS X: The Missing Manual [oreilly.com] is a well-respected book for showing both converts from OS 9 and the Unix/Windows world how things are done in OS X.

    To get into the gritty Unix stuff, you can also pick up Mac OS X for Unix Geeks [oreilly.com].

    The combination of these two books might better server you rather than one "everything and the kitchen sink" Mac OS X book.

    Colocated Linux Servers - From $60/mo [aktiom.net]
    • To get into the gritty Unix stuff, you can also pick up Mac OS X for Unix Geeks.

      This is an AWESOME book. Having been a Solaris/Linux admin for many years, this was the book that provided the real *click*, "so THAT'S how that works in OSX!" that made me feel like "root" again. ;)
    • The combination of these two books might better server you

      It might server me? Wow, now there's a Freudien Slip

      Def'n: Freudian slip: Wen you say one thing, and you mean your mother

    • There can be only one (Score:4, Informative)

      by ProfKyne ( 149971 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @01:37PM (#6059436)

      The combination of these two books might better server you rather than one "everything and the kitchen sink" Mac OS X book.

      Hang on to your pennies. It would seem that Running MacOS X, a book for MacOS X power users in the vein of Running Linux, is in development [x180.net] right now.

  • book (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:08AM (#6057859) Homepage Journal

    Contents:

    Unpacking your Macintosh

    Turning on Your Macintosh OSX Computer

    Changing Your Work Environment

    What is this "Unix" under the hood?

    Using the Console

    The Root User

    r00tly c0n50l3 usage

    0wnx0r1ng j00r fr13nd'5 05X b0x0r5!

  • Decent review, however... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by numbski ( 515011 ) * <numbski@nOSPAm.hksilver.net> on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:08AM (#6057862) Homepage Journal
    I'm still looking for h4xx0ring OSX: The guide to 0wnz0ring your mac...and everyone else's. :)

    Serious, I've been a FreeBSD admin for quite some time now, and I use OSX on all my desktops, and have deployed 2 xserves in the last year. There is quite simply a LARGE void in server documentation for this OS, along with configuration how-tos.

    I still can't get ndc (name daemon control, bind) to work on OSX, though named runs just fine. I had to write up docs myself (posted at macosxhints.com) on how to partition out the system and have Apple's updates work nicely and how to get SpamAssassin Milter working with a custom rebuild of sendmail.

    Much much much documents need to be written for the rest of us....those who know what we're doing, but don't want to spend weeks researching in order to do it, which is what I'm STILL doing. :P
    • I'm currently working on getting chrooted ssh shell sessions set up for my users. I've looked at doing scponly http://www.sublimation.org/scponly/ But that only works for those not wanting 'real' shell accounts.

      Anyone with experience on the topic I'd like to talk to so I can document it and submit it back to the community for searchability and useability. Kthx! :)

    • Re:Decent review, however... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Ha. I tried mac os x once on a 15 inch laptop. it's sweet

      I'm still looking for h4xx0ring OSX: The guide to 0wnz0ring your mac...and everyone else's. :)

      Serious, I've been a FreeBSD admin for quite some time now, and I use OSX on all my desktops, and have deployed 2 xserves in the last year. There is quite simply a LARGE void in server documentation for this OS, along with configuration how-tos.

      I still can't get ndc (name daemon control, bind) to work on OSX, though named runs just fine. I had to write up
    • I've been running into issues that I used to be able to do easily in NeXTStep. Showing evil invisibles, for instance. I want to see my .files, especially my .. directory so I can get to the higher directory quickly by double-clicking on it. I prefer the icon view under OSX finder, so I want to see the invisibles and naughty directories, such as /etc and /usr.

    • I still can't get ndc (name daemon control, bind) to work on OSX, though named runs just fine.

      In other words, due to a lack of control you can't be master of your domain.

      Don't worry. Happens to most guys.

  • To paraphrase (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 )
    Book has good points and bad points. Reviewer prefers other books.
  • this was too lite to be called a review (in my opinion). Personally I felt that Mac OS X: The Missing Manual was a good entry to mid-level book. my two cents.
    • one thing to bear in mind (at least what i discovered after the missing manual and unix geeks books on mac os x) is that despite people getting modded for saying that os x books are mostly fluff, there is not much to say about them.

      i knew very little about actually running the console if it was not an ms-dos prompt prior to the release of os x and have found that learning how to use it is a battle fought with man pages, documentation from other linux documentation and distributions help, but not for you to

  • All 1000 page computer books are fluff (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Znonymous Coward ( 615009 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:18AM (#6057963) Journal
    The real why to master Mac OS X is to use macosxhints.com and google.com

  • Didn't need books... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Ballresin ( 398599 )
    I learned MacOS X by first having a general knowledge of OS 9. Now, OS X is very different from OS 9, but i had some idea of how things should work.

    I went on to learn some Unix/Linux commands in late highschool when my teacher/LAN Administrator told the school he was switching the whole school to Linux to help the budget, and because M$ was bothing him. So I began learning the basic commands there.

    I furthered my study of the command line and the kernel (That sounded like the title to a book, or should be.

  • Calling Orson (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:46AM (#6058239)
    I've seen a fair number of books for OS X and they range in target audience from the raw beginner such as Mac OS X for Dummies and Robin William's Mac OS X Book through to those for technical readers such as Mac OS X In A Nutshell (IAN)."
    every time i see the name Robin Williams, i have to think, what the hell does Mork know about computers?

  • What about the Reviewer? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sean80 ( 567340 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:49AM (#6058274)
    Does anybody else here worry about the fact that we don't know the first thing about the author of this review? Is he/she an employee of Sybex? Of Apple? Does he/she stand to gain financially from the type of exposure which only Slashdot can give to technical books?

    I dunno about you, but there are a suspiciously large number of highly-rated reviews here on Slashdot. I think we're all being taken for a ride sometimes.
    • A quick look at the reviewer's web site and a glance at Sybex's internal contacts documents shows no obvious link. He didn't write the book and he hasn't done any work for Sybex in that last few years.

      Is he related to somebody at Sybex? Who knows?

      Is he dating somebody at Sybex? I have no idea; I don't get the good gossip at work.

      Me? I work for Sybex. I'm the Director of Information Services. I have little to do with book creation, but I wouldn't mind if you bought a couple of our books. :)
    • Until recently most book reviews have been done with a hyperlink to the publisher with the reviewer getting a percentage of the profit. Cmd Taco no longer acccepts these for obvious reasons. Go read the past book reviews and read the flamming comments. One guy admitted to it and he stated that he made enough money to buy a car.

      You can easily make tens of thousands of dollars in profit just by signing up for the "Tell a friend" service at bn.com and then posting on slashdot with a full hyperlink to the book

  • MacOSX From Scratch (Score:4, Interesting)

    by axxackall ( 579006 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:50AM (#6058281) Homepage Journal
    The book title is misleading. I thought it's really about mastering, something like Building MacOSX From Scratch. But In fact what the book is trying to do is to compensate the lack of user guide docs for MacOSX.

    I don't see any mastering in the book. Do I miss anything?

    • you can't really build macosx from scratch... unless you want to completely re-write compatible code open-source for us... :)

      On the other hand, you can build Darwin, and there are tutorials on how to do this online. I wouldn't recommend trying to build all of Darwin and then put the GUI back on top, as I suspect you'll need to rebuild the GUI and can't (for instance, the gcc that looks like it will be used for the next macosx is 3.3, which isn't binary compatible with the current one being used - 3.1, so
  • And here I thought he was only a comedian/actor...

    I know I know *groan*

  • Doesn't a book defeat the purpose of a mac? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jeeves99 ( 187755 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:51AM (#6058289)
    Half the fun of owning a mac is maintaining a defeatist attitude b/c no one makes enough software ports and all the features/bugs in the platform are undocumented easter-eggs. That software problem has been mostly stamped out. Now, if someone filled the documentation void, what would I do with all my angst????

  • inadequate review (Score:4, Informative)

    by uncadonna ( 85026 ) <mtobis&gmail,com> on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @11:57AM (#6058334) Homepage Journal
    I go along with those who think this review showed almost no insight or even attention and should not have passed muster for posting. I also think that discussing other members of this class of book without mentioning the hardly obscure OSX: The Missing Manual is practically negligent.

    TMM plus OSX for Unix Geeks, both from O'Reilly, have served me well.

  • Programming (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ann Coulter ( 614889 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @12:05PM (#6058396)
    Cocoa Programming [amazon.com] is a very detailed book about the Cocoa environment. It gives you a very in-depth look into Apple's technology and even pulls you into the design philosophies behind Cocoa and Mac OS X. An excellent read.
    • If you've read one "Cocoa" programming book, you've read them all. (I have, or at least it seems like it when browsing the new ones at Barnes and Nobles)... Anywho, here is your guide to writing a Guide To Cocoa programming:

      1. Talk about MVC design philosophy.
      2. Project Builder chapter.
      2.A. How to create a new project
      2.B. How to save your project
      2.C. How to compile your project
      2.D. How to close your project
      3. Interface Builder
      3.A. Do a bunch of stuff with the nifty controls
      3.B. Use the term "f
  • One of the best source for OS X help/info/tricks remains MUGs: Macintosh User Groups [apple.com]...
    Better than any book I know, and won't be outdated :-)

  • Unleashed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Walrus99 ( 543380 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @01:31PM (#6059366)

    One of the better books on OS X that I've found is "Mac OS X Unleashed" by John Ray and William C. Ray. It covers the new GUI based features and apps in OSX such as iPhoto and iTune, but the best part is that over half the book is dedicated to using the terminal. It covers the quirks in OS X/Darwin compared to other UNIX-like systems. Best used as a reference manual, but if you want to read all 1500 pages you are welcome to it.

    (I don't have a link to Amazon, but send me money if you like it.)

    • OSX Unleashed is a great book, with the power to turn Mac GUI victims into power users. It covers very nicely the basics in Unix, the Next heritage, and advanced Mac geekness in general. It was the only book that explained what could be achieved with Netinfo (One of the Authors appeared to be a Next veteran). It is also very well written and quite entertaining for a technical book.

  • What helped me with OSX (Score:3, Interesting)

    by alfredo ( 18243 ) on Wednesday May 28, 2003 @02:02PM (#6059657)
    was several years before it was released, Apple insiders were suggesting that we learn Linux. They said it will help us with the new Mac OS. They also said that if Apple gets killed by MS, we would have a non MS alternative.

    So when I got my first taste of OSX, I went straight to the terminal and typed top. It's all been gravy since then.

    I like O'Reilly's Learning UNIX for Mac OS X. Advanced OSX is cool too if you like Peachpit press.

    Nothing beats experience, except Edy's Chocolate Fudge Sundae.
    • I think one of the BSDs would have been a better choice for that purpose. I had to maintain an OS X Server box for awhile. This was the somewhat flakey product Apple had out for a couple of years before 10.0.0 came out. I always thought of it as an expensive pre-beta. I came at it as a tech accustomed to Linux. My very first Samba install was on that machine...talk about a trial by fire. Anyway, I got tripped up quite a bit by the differences between BSD and GNU style userlands.

      I got used to it after
  • While the book explains how to use the applications, tweak the interface, and fix common problems, it doesnt seem to dive under the hood of osx.

    I want to see books about the disk/file structures, program directories and resources, processes, configuration files, etc.

    You know how Windowmaker works, this is how AQUA Works.
    You know how BlahFS works, this is how HFS+ works. (And how UFS works under OSX)
    How the control panel controls the configuration files.
    Using LSOF to trace iTunes sockets/ports/file handler
  • I recently had to give a technical training for supporting MacOS X and MacOS 9 to seasoned Windows administrators. Two of them also had Solaris experience. My problems were "where to start" and "what book to offer".
    See, they had ample experience with the other OS, but none with MacOS special niceties. I did not want to bore them with the otherwise excellent Missing Manual series, since these cover mostly user apps. I needed a book that briefly touches the Mac user experience, Finder, windows, menus etc. a

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