Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (Second Edition)

emmastory writes "I finally (finally) picked up Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. I've been meaning to grab it since I first heard that David Pogue wrote a book on OS X; I've been a fan of his for a while. I remember reading his stuff in Macworld -- on System 7, even -- when someone gave me a subscription (many) years ago, and his New York Times columns have generally been pretty good as well." Update: 03/25 16:43 GMT by T : Ha! The original headline was missing OS X's "X" -- now in place. Read on ... Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (Second Edition) author David Pogue pages 712 publisher O'Reilly and Associates/Pogue Press rating An excellent book that merits its title. reviewer Emma Story ISBN 0596004508 summary An intensely thorough look at using OS X, updated to include Jaguar.

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual is exactly what you'd expect if you've read any of Pogue's other books or columns: it's clear and straightforward without seeming dumbed down. His writing tends to be fairly light and often funny, making for particularly readable technical books. That's not to say it's without substance, though -- within the first chunk of this book (which is pushing six hundred pages) I'd already had a dozen of my existing questions answered as well as plenty I hadn't even thought to wonder about.

It seems pretty definitely directed at people who've been using Mac OS for a long time and are switching to OS X. Given what OS X is, it's not surprising that it takes some getting used to, despite vaguely looking like Mac OS. If you've never used OS 8 or 9 and don't have any existing Mac habits to unlearn, you might not even need a book like this -- but I suspect it would still be pretty useful. Pogue also takes time to address issues people might have switching to OS X from Unix or Windows, but the focus is on comparisons to older versions of Mac OS. As the title implies, Apple documentation tends to be slim to non-existent, and this is by far the most thorough OS X book I've seen yet. It functions exactly as promised -- I keep my copy on the shelf over my desk, and when I have a question about something I remember from OS 9 or why something I know from BSD doesn't work under 10.2, I can just look it up.

The second edition is more of the same -- the book is bigger, fatter, and covers Jaguar. It was published in October 2002, so it's not quite up to the minute, but it's certainly not outdated yet. I shelled out another twenty bucks when I first saw it, and I don't regret it -- the only major complaint I'd had about the first edition was that its usefulness was somewhat impaired when 10.2 came out. It's possible I'll feel the same way about the second edition when faced with 10.3 -- but maybe Pogue will write another book.

I would recommend this book for just about every OS X user, regardless of how recently you switched -- people who installed it back during the public beta will probably get just as much out of the second edition as those who just bought their first-ever Mac. However, you'll probably find it more useful if you're coming from older versions of Mac OS than if you've just switched from another Unix or Windows, but that's not to say it isn't worth reading in those cases. It's relatively cheap for an O'Reilly book (712 pages, list price is $29.95) so you can't really go wrong.

You can purchase OS X: The Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

RantTime: How did this make the front page?

[masq]

Mac Zealots, Please Note: I'm not knocking OSX, and I'm not knocking this book, and I'm not knocking the review. It's just not front page material. Let me explain.

It doesn't apply to people who don't use OSX, and it doesn't really apply to experienced users of OSX. It only applies to a very specific subset of a very small userbase, ONE WHICH HAS THEIR OWN SECTION.

It's like having a filing cabinet marked "Apple Stuff" and then putting all your files into "Miscellaneous" instead. If the article is of WIDESPREAD GENERAL INTEREST, then put it on the front page. If it is IMPORTANT or URGENT (like security alerts), put it on the front page. Otherwise, put it ONLY where it belongs. We ARE smart enough to find it.

Slashdot Editors: PLEASE use the system YOU yourselves have created. The main page should have LESS superfluous junk on it, and the sections should be more specific and detailed. If we want to read about Apple, we click the Apple link. If we want to read about BSD, we click BSD. It's easy. It's logical. It works. Unless YOU don't let it work. Please be discerning. I don't see a book review as a "Headlining Story".

Or are you going to have a Slashdot Platinum Supreme(tm) plan, where we pay to have things sorted correctly? ;-)

Bah. Don't ask me - what do I know, anyway?

Yours Truly,

J. Jonah Jameson
Daily Bugle