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O'Reilly Publishing Mac OS X for Unix Geeks
vi-rocks writes "A new O'Reilly book is due for release in October: Mac OS X for Unix Geeks. Brian Jepson and Ernest Rothman are the authors. Details about the book (including a sample chapter) are available on the website. Note the sash on the top right hand of the cover reads 'Switching to Mac OS X.' They say you can't judge a book by it cover -- HUMBUG!, I've already pre-ordered :)" The sample chapter information on NetInfo has helped me already.
Are there any good, technical websites for helping people switch Windows to Mac - and use both at the same time?
Dunno about helping switchers, but MacWindows has lots of stuff about interoperating.
Take a look at the gimp-print project. Has lots of drivers.
I heard that it enables the Samba abilities of CUPS with the installation. It actually only takes a single symbolic link that Apple seems to have "left out" of the release. Once that's installed follow gimp-print's instructions on installing Samba shared printers.
Also, this is a posting with the link, should you need to create it manually. You don't have to use the web-based CUPS admin utility like stated. You can use the standard "Add Printer" in advanced mode (gimp-print explains). Read some of the follow-up posts, as they discus printing both ways (to and from a Mac).
Hope that helps.
-Alex
Covers sometimes get changed after they've gone out to Amazon and other electronic book sites. Getting corrections out takes some time and is more difficult than you might expect.
Incase you've been in a cave, on Mars, with your eyes closes, and you fingers in your ears, Mac OS X has become an OS that many geeks are interested in.
Because of this, there have been a hell of a lot of Mac OS X related stories on Slashdot lately? Why? Because Slashdot covers "News For Nerds".
However, it is understandable that not everyone is interested in Mac OS X, Apple, or anything at all related. That's why Slashdot has stories put into sections, and you can then change your preferences to not show sections you're not interested in.
Now, if you can't even figure out how to change your preferences not to show Apple related stories, you're probably not capable of using most of the software that is talked about on Slashdot.
So, get into your preferences, and check the following boxes:
Apple
Desktops (Apple)
iMac (Apple)
Media (Apple)
Networking (Apple)
OS 9 (Apple)
OS X (Apple)
Portables (Apple)
Technology (Apple)
Utilities (Apple)
Wireless (Apple)
Those topics cover every single Apple related story on Slashdot, and with them checked you should never see them again.
And, before you ask why there are so many Apple related sections, it is because there is a lot of stories in the Apple section of Slashdot that cover all of those topics. To keep people like you that don't want to see Apple related stories happy, while still not giving each story a generic Apple icon, new topics were added with (Apple) appended. This was done so people like you could exclude them.
Now, you've been empowered. Use this knowledge well. With any luck, we'll never see you post in an Apple story ever again. And if we do, we'll know you're doing it by choice...
In an on-going email exchange I am having with an Apple employee (whom I won't name) in their marketing department,
First of all, the vast majority of Apple employees have no idea what is going on in the company at large. And Apple historically regards its marketing people as little more than a necessary nuisance; marketing people are often the last to find out about anything.
Unless it comes from an engineer, be very skeptical. Otherwise just be reasonably skeptical.
the Apple marketing person directly stated to me that Apple was catering to their historic Mac customers, and is purposely ignoring the Unix market.
Apple probably figures Unix users are resourceful enough to fill their own needs, instead of stomping their feet and complaining.
Apple has about 20 or so million users who still haven't upgraded to OS X. It is simply good business sense to get the majority of the user base migrated before staking out new territory. And your anonymous Apple employee got it wrong. Apple is not just catering to their own users; they're trying to woo Windows users too. Even a small percentage of this market could mean millions of new Apple customers. It is good business (hey, there's that phrase again) to begin making overtures to the Windows market and to leave the Unix market, which is a much savvier and more self-reliant (not to mention smaller) class of users, to itself for now.
He also claimed that Apple would soon start paying more attention to the Unix market. I won't hold my breath.
So all that effort to update the BSD layer and add gcc 3.1 was just to make Windows users jealous?
Apple has been ignoring Unix users for more than 12 years.
Apple didn't have a proper Unix-based OS until 2001. Apple was shrewd enough to figure that most Unix-heads weren't going to be migrating in droves to System 7, and so concentrated on the markets where it was strong: publishing and multimedia.
Also note that my Apple contact indicated that Macs would never ship with a 3-button mouse
Apple could be ready to ship a 3-button mouse next week and your contact wouldn't know a thing. See above.
I can't believe people still insist on making an issue of the freakin' mouse. Even if Apple never ships one (which I don't consider a certainty, as the system requirements for Shake include a 3-buttoner), you can buy one for under $30. Or just plug in the one you're currently using; OS X will recognize it without any additional drivers.
And not to be churlish, but it seems like a lot of users have successfully transitioned to OS X even in spite of the bad ol' CTRL button.