Solaris 9 For Dummies

Spencerian writes with a review combining two things you might not expect in one volume: the "For Dummies" label and Sun Solaris. (Raise your hand if you've never, ever looked through a "For Dummies" book.) Read on for Spencerian's summary of Solaris 9 For Dummies, which he says is a good book for the Solaris newbies, but not for everyone. Solaris 9 For Dummies author Dave Taylor pages 354 publisher Wiley Publishing rating 8 reviewer Kevin Spencer ISBN 0764539698 summary A" ...For Dummies" book like Solaris 9 For Dummies will never make you popular with other geeks. However, if you are a Solaris admin, perhaps giving this book to your users might stop them from asking you the same questions over and over.

I'm pretty intimate with the ...For Dummies book formula. I worked at the company a few years ago. The ownership of the book series has changed a bit, as has its cover art, but the basic setup remains.

Solaris 9 For Dummies is, as with many ...For Dummies books, a starter guide and reference. This isn't a book for administrators, and says so. Solaris 9 For Dummies maintains the book series' reputation as strong general references for users who are thrust (sometimes unwillingly) into new or different technology and need the basics in getting around, fast.

Author Dave Taylor is no stranger to UNIX, having written several notable UNIX beginner, intermediate and advanced references on UNIX in general, including books on Red Hat Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X. Solaris 9 For Dummies works for SPARC hardware as well as Intel-based hardware. More about Dave Taylor's work can be found at his web site, Intuitive.com.

The ...For Dummies series books are pure references. They aren't meant to be read from cover to cover, which gives the author an advantage by writing topics and chapters without a lot of preamble. The information is just shallow enough to understand but never trivial, giving readers typically only what they require. The typical cross-references and tips are available to guide you along. Chapters delve into topics you expect from discussing a UNIX such as Solaris, such as moving about the new GNOME interface (which will replace the old CDE interface over time), running the basic applications and utilities, and the like. In the traditional format of these books, Solaris 9 For Dummies comes with a tear-out cheat sheet. This cheat sheet gives readers a basic CDE and GNOME interface menu command tree to make it easily to find, say, the Empty Trash command.

The book's topics include details on:

• File management
• Making a decent password
• Shells
• Text editors
• Using Writer and StarOffice
• Internet, Web, and Mail access
• Essential system administration

The author knows that UNIX isn't UNIX without a certain level of geekspeak, and so provides readers with a well-crafted introduction in the use of command lines and how they can be a Good Thing when using Solaris often for particular tasks. Many UNIX writers (especially developers) wrongly assume that anyone who uses a UNIX knows where and how to find or do what most might consider a routine task. In a ...For Dummies book, this thinking is not allowed, so the author adds enough background for you to get the gist, guides you on the essentials, and provides information that points you to find more complex answers elsewhere.

Solaris 9 For Dummies will not make your whites brighter, increase your personal intimate pleasure, or bring peace to the Middle East, and it's certainly not flashy. It's just a good book for the Solaris newbies, plain and simple. If you hack your kernel just for pleasure (gotta shave your palms regularly, I'm sure), you can be reasonably guaranteed this isn't the book for you. However, if you are an Solaris administrator and get plagued with user questions about basic tasks, maybe you should have your boss buy a few copies of Solaris 9 For Dummies for your users so you can continue your Quake3 fragfest uninterrupted.

You can purchase Solaris 9 For Dummies 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

Rethink the title

[cK-Gunslinger]

I mean, "... for Dummies" may be ok for:

Win95
Losing weight
Yoga
etc...

But releasing books under that title will *not* attract the type of people this book is aimed at. (As mentioned in the summary, how many of you read "Dummies" books) They are working purely on brand recognition, but in this case, I think that's a bad idea. How about "Beginner's Guide to Solaris" instead?

Re:Rethink the title

[cK-Gunslinger]

Why is it okay for those titles but not for solaris? you're an elitist asshole.

*sigh*

It's "okay" for those titles because the target audience can feel comfortable reading a "Dummies" book. My mother would have no objections to reading/buying a "Windows98 for Dummies" book. On the other hand, your typical techno-wannabe has a very fragile ego and would generally not be secure enough to even be seen flipping through one at the bookstore. It's a classic scenario, typically seen in gender issues (asking for directions, watching "chick flicks," etc.)

Asshole? Probably.
Elitist? No.

Just how big is the market for this book?

[binaryDigit]

It's hard to imagine that there are that many people that are going to need a book like this. Perhaps a Windoze IT person whose shop is getting some Solaris box's? Sounds like anyone who is coming from a Unix IT background already would find this book useless, and the number of "average" joes who know very little about *nix but are getting Solaris boxen has to be pretty small. Definitely a niche product. I guess this is just an outcome of the fact that the "For Dummies" publisher is trying to cover every topic known to man.

UNIX for Dummies

[ih8apple]

If it's really so basic, as the reviewer says, and covers simple *nix topics, then what is the difference between this book and Unix for Dummies? I'm guessing the answer is nothing.

Look at the basic topics: File management; Making a decent password; Shells; Text editors; Using Writer and StarOffice; Internet, Web, and Mail access; and Essential system administration. Are any of these *really* solaris specific or different for any other *nix?

for Dummies

[Jason1729]

Why do people buy books that claim to be aimed at dummies? Just because you're a novice doesn't mean you're a dummy. The computer books are also very condescending, the tone of them is talking down to the reader. The Sams TY series are much better for new users.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Re:The burning question...

[leerpm]

I think a reasonable candidate for reading this book might be someone who is fairly technically advanced in Windows, but has yet to be exposed to much of Unix/Linux. While it is true that they could just as easily go the route of learning Linux via Red Hat, Mandrake or some other distro, some users might prefer to go with a more 'truer' Unix distro.

A good example, might be a developer at a software company that makes enterprise software, but only runs on Windows so far. The company might want to try porting their software to multiple platforms, but get their developers familiar with the environments beforehand.

Re:The burning question...

[no soup for you]

Why? Is there really a need for a Dummies book about Solaris? It's not like you can just walk into CompUSA and pick up Solaris 9. How does Wiley market a book like this?

I'm a perfect audience for this book. I installed our linux servers here, and am in charge of having a plan in case of the worst possible scenario -- SCO forces "the man" to have me remove gnu/linux from our company

All of our services claim they will run on Solaris for x86, which is free on 1 processor machines... So, my exit strategy involves migrating to Solaris.

So, I think this would be a good book to tell me what are the glaring differences. It won't be the best, or last book I'd buy, but it would probably be the first.

Dummies are Good.

[RealisticWeb.com]

if you are an Solaris administrator and get plagued with user questions about basic tasks, maybe you should have your boss buy a few copies of Solaris 9 For Dummies for your users

Think about this sentance before you start flaming the dummies books. The author caught the main point right there. I would never buy this book for myself but it sounds like a great thing to buy for other users at my company. I am a UNIX sysadmin, but we don't have any Solaris boxen. If we ever did get one, I feel confident that some man pages, the dead tree manual and some message boards would be enough for me to hack my way through the Solaris caveats, but I would rather eat rocks then set up a training session when I would have to teach middle management how to use the system. If I was forced to do just that, I would probably have them each get a copy of this book as the take home material.

Don't discount the Dummies books, they are a good thing (tm), if not for everyone.

Re:Solaris 9

[sys$manager]

I'm surprised someone on /. is willing to realize and admit that Solaris is more stable than Linux. It's faster too. I've done side-by-side benchmarks of single-cpu Sun boxes vs. dual-cpu Dell boxes running Linux and the Sun boxes won every time.

Re:The burning question...

[cide1]

Solaris 8, you young kids and your fancy tools, the development environment I spend my day in is 2.6, and my company has no plans of changing. Its more of a stability issue than anything. With new versions come new compatibility problems, and the question of supporting old program under a new OS. Upgrading a large commercial Unix system with 3rd party compilers and tools can be quite expensive. The biggest expense isn't the software so much, as the time lost due to tools not being available. The current machine Im working on has been running the same OS for 6 years now, and frankly I'd be scared if our admins tried to upgrade it to even 8, not to mention 9.

Re:"For Dummies" is an Insulting Title

[stratjakt]

I agree with you, but it's a hell of a marketing strategy.

Theres some sort of deal with "kids today", it was true even when I was in school. Intelligence and hard work is shunned. It makes you a nerd, or a geek. Ask any 15 year old girl what the square root of four is and she'll giggle and go "i dont know math!". She probably knows, but it's not cool to know math, so the act is that they dont. This drives me nuts, the "im pretending to be dumb because it's not cool to be smart" act.

Such with the dummies and idiots and morons books. You wouldnt want to be caught walking out of a bookstore with a copy of "Advanced Solaris 9 Setup and Maintainance". You'd look like a geek, a nerd.

But a "for dummies" book under your arm broadcasts the message that you dont know, and dont care about the subject, because you're just too cool.

I really cant stand the way ignorance and stupidity is glorified in western cultures. It's not an american thing, since I'm canadian and have lived in the UK - it seems to be a white thing.

We make heroes out of the stupidest people alive and hold them up as role models for our kids. The guy from "Dude wheres my car" is just supposed to be what every teenager wants to be. A fucking idiot who's barely functional.

Oh well.

Re:"For Dummies" is an Insulting Title

[jdavidb]

Ask any 15 year old girl what the square root of four is and she'll giggle and go "i dont know math!". She probably knows, but it's not cool to know math, so the act is that they dont.

I recently tutored my girlfriend for the math portion of the Texas state college test (TASP) which determines if you need to take remedial courses or not. She had zero confidence in her own abilities, but when we were done she beat the passing score by 65 points and the College Algebra level score by 30 points. I can't think of anything so rewarding as helping someone see that they can do math.

I really cant stand the way ignorance and stupidity is glorified in western cultures.

I enthusiastically agree.