Slashdot Mirror
Mac OS X Leopard Edition: The Missing Manual
jsuda writes "The preeminent general reference source for Mac OS X has always been the Missing
Manual Series written by David Pogue. The latest iteration in the series
is its Mac OS X Leopard Edition, completely revised, and it is the biggest,
most comprehensive, and most useful of all the editions in the series. It covers
the Mac OS X desktop and file system, the free applications included with the Mac OS
X installation, the system components and technologies, networking and online
features and components, and includes welcome appendices on installation, troubleshooting,
Windows/Mac comparisons, and a Master Keystroke list." Read on for the rest of John's review.
Mac OS X Leopard Edition: The Missing Manual
author
David Pogue
pages
893
publisher
O'Reilly Media Inc.
rating
10
reviewer
John Suda
ISBN
9780596529529
summary
Great Manual for all levels of users
Every one of the editions has been exceedingly well-designed and written combining
serious treatment of subject content with style, wit, and humor, as well as honest
evaluation and critique of features of the Mac operating system. All of the OS
X Missing Manuals have addressed issues for a broad range of users, from the lightly
experienced, the intermediate, and for power users. For the most part, however,
the primary focus of each edition has been on the less experienced users. This
has changed with the Leopard edition.
There seems to have been a deliberate effort to make the book more appealing and useful to upper-end users without losing any utility at all for others. There seems to be more material for power users- -there are more Power Users Guides providing advanced information and techniques, more UNIX references for those willing and able to take avail of the UNIX kernel underlying the operating system, more identifications of keyboard shortcuts, and more disclosure of undocumented and advanced features than in previous editions.
For example, Pogue itemizes and describes at least 20 UNIX utilities that only power users would want to use, explains how to configure preferences for the Terminal application, explains how to deal with the file and folder permissions system using UNIX commands, and even notes the existence of the venerable Eliza therapist emulator program hidden in a part of the emacs text editor. At each juncture of describing operating system features, Pogue explains from the perspective of different levels of users, including the power user, like himself. Unlike in many other books purporting to cover a broad range of users, this one does not short on the higher-end.
This is all well and good as casual users are still widely well-taken care of by the thorough and well-organized explanations of nearly every feature of OS 10.5. The book is illustrated profusely with screenshots of system features, configuration processes, comparison of the Mac OS X versions, comparisons of Mac OS X to Windows features, and more. Nearly every page is loaded with Tips, Notes, FAQs, lists, tables, and sidebars. Throughout, there are nuggets of insight and technical arcana that even Mac veterans will be surprised to learn about. I learned, for example, that the one-button Apple Mighty Mouse has a secret 2-button feature. Also there is a similar way to operate a laptop with a two finger trackpad technique. There are a lot of tips and tricks like that in the book. Even beyond description and explanation, Pogue provides useful recommendations for configurations of the Dock, recovery from common errors, and using Automator to design practical workflows for common tasks.
The subject content builds upon that of previous editions and updates it with material relating to the 300-plus new features of Leopard. Much of the new material covers the Leopard update highlights the backup program called Time Machine, a desktop switching application called Spaces, the Stacks organizing feature, the file previewer, QuickLook, and the feature enhancements in iChat, Mail, and especially Spotlight, the search tool.
Spotlight is much more than a mere search tool although it is a great one. A whole chapter is devoted to it alone. Pogue explains how to use it not just for casual and advanced searching (using over 125 types of data and metadata) but as a quick launcher of files, folders, and applications; as a calculator; and as a dictionary. Sophisticated query languages can be used and Pogue lists a series of power user keyboard shortcuts for Spotlight use.
I see the book as especially useful for those Windows users of all levels gravitating to the Mac platform. Not only is the treatment of the Mac OS done well, but at nearly every juncture, Pogue takes the perspective of a Windows user and provides practical comparisons and contrasts of operating systems.
Weaving all of these perspectives into a harmonious, readable manual is a fine achievement. The content discussions and explanations are never abstract but written from the viewpoint of the thoughtful and practical user and no one is better at this than David Pogue who has been cited before as one of the worlds best (technical) communicators. The denseness of the treatment of the subject content diminishes somewhat from the readability of the book compared to prior editions and there is a bit less wit, humor and style. That is the trade-off, I presume, for the increased breadth and depth of the content treatment but this Missing Manual is still as well written as a computer manual can be expected to be.
You can purchase Mac OSX Leopard Edition: The Missing Manual from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
There seems to have been a deliberate effort to make the book more appealing and useful to upper-end users without losing any utility at all for others. There seems to be more material for power users- -there are more Power Users Guides providing advanced information and techniques, more UNIX references for those willing and able to take avail of the UNIX kernel underlying the operating system, more identifications of keyboard shortcuts, and more disclosure of undocumented and advanced features than in previous editions.
For example, Pogue itemizes and describes at least 20 UNIX utilities that only power users would want to use, explains how to configure preferences for the Terminal application, explains how to deal with the file and folder permissions system using UNIX commands, and even notes the existence of the venerable Eliza therapist emulator program hidden in a part of the emacs text editor. At each juncture of describing operating system features, Pogue explains from the perspective of different levels of users, including the power user, like himself. Unlike in many other books purporting to cover a broad range of users, this one does not short on the higher-end.
This is all well and good as casual users are still widely well-taken care of by the thorough and well-organized explanations of nearly every feature of OS 10.5. The book is illustrated profusely with screenshots of system features, configuration processes, comparison of the Mac OS X versions, comparisons of Mac OS X to Windows features, and more. Nearly every page is loaded with Tips, Notes, FAQs, lists, tables, and sidebars. Throughout, there are nuggets of insight and technical arcana that even Mac veterans will be surprised to learn about. I learned, for example, that the one-button Apple Mighty Mouse has a secret 2-button feature. Also there is a similar way to operate a laptop with a two finger trackpad technique. There are a lot of tips and tricks like that in the book. Even beyond description and explanation, Pogue provides useful recommendations for configurations of the Dock, recovery from common errors, and using Automator to design practical workflows for common tasks.
The subject content builds upon that of previous editions and updates it with material relating to the 300-plus new features of Leopard. Much of the new material covers the Leopard update highlights the backup program called Time Machine, a desktop switching application called Spaces, the Stacks organizing feature, the file previewer, QuickLook, and the feature enhancements in iChat, Mail, and especially Spotlight, the search tool.
Spotlight is much more than a mere search tool although it is a great one. A whole chapter is devoted to it alone. Pogue explains how to use it not just for casual and advanced searching (using over 125 types of data and metadata) but as a quick launcher of files, folders, and applications; as a calculator; and as a dictionary. Sophisticated query languages can be used and Pogue lists a series of power user keyboard shortcuts for Spotlight use.
I see the book as especially useful for those Windows users of all levels gravitating to the Mac platform. Not only is the treatment of the Mac OS done well, but at nearly every juncture, Pogue takes the perspective of a Windows user and provides practical comparisons and contrasts of operating systems.
Weaving all of these perspectives into a harmonious, readable manual is a fine achievement. The content discussions and explanations are never abstract but written from the viewpoint of the thoughtful and practical user and no one is better at this than David Pogue who has been cited before as one of the worlds best (technical) communicators. The denseness of the treatment of the subject content diminishes somewhat from the readability of the book compared to prior editions and there is a bit less wit, humor and style. That is the trade-off, I presume, for the increased breadth and depth of the content treatment but this Missing Manual is still as well written as a computer manual can be expected to be.
You can purchase Mac OSX Leopard Edition: The Missing Manual from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
If it would tell me how to fix all these Airport disconnects that Leopard seems to cause.
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
So can I read it on my iPhone? :P
Why would you expect a comprehensive book written by a 3rd party to be supplied free with the OS?
If you want help from Apple, there's the built in help function, the section of their website, and their Discussions Forums
, not to mention the free call number available in almost all countries they officially sell in.The Mothership
They provide an entire website of documentation about Leopard.
http://www.apple.com/support/leopard/
(and yes, they assume you can get to and read a web page).
I see ENORMOUS books on how to use Windows... or even Word for that matter. 600+ pages describing how to use a word processor.
Why doesn't Microsoft give those third-party books away for free?
You do realize this is a third-party book, right?
Just like all the Windows books that cover material that Microsoft didn't put in a book with the operating system? How about all those programming books, the compiler makers should cover every topic you should ever need to know about programming too.
Crap. I was going to post that but you beat me to it >.
A valid ISBN has either 10 or 13 digits. The listed "780596529529" has 12. Perhaps it is a UPC?
Steve's Reality Distortion Field is in for servicing. Apparently in a very small number of cases it caused dancing like a monkey.
The Mothership
You can ignore the "10." in Mac OS X version numbers. The transition from Tiger to Leopard is from version 4 to version 5. Yes, that's a big change.
Just because Microsoft can't come out with OS updates but once or twice a decade doesn't mean that Apple isn't providing significant updates to their OS more regularly. People see a reason to spend $130 for Leopard; there must be something new there.
Will it tell me how to fix wireless on leopard that 10.5.2 didn't fix?
the book doesn't tell you how to make it work when it doesn't. It is a comprehensive guide to all of the features that may be missed by users who aren't paying attention. I gave the tiger edition to my mother in law. While she could use the machine out of the box, she wouldn't figure out the more complex aspects of the finder on her own. In addition, the book contains a basic guide to the ilife programs as well as iChat. While she could likely figure this out on her own, having a resource has been great for her. It gives basic users a more advanced knowledge than they would otherwise have.
Seriously.
Also - it's been a long time since I bought a copy of Windows XP, but I seem to recall that the "manual" it came with was basically a "Getting Started" guide, maybe 50 pages long or so, with big, easily-readable text on small pages. I don't really see that as much of an improvement over what Apple supplies.
if it was called "Secrets of OS X" instead of "The Missing Manual" nobody would bitch. People are more than happy to take any opportunity they can to take a shot at apple. My girlfriend recently bought a vista laptop. It didn't come with a vista manual (or even install/recovery disks)... but there is no "Vista: The missing manual (and recovery disk)"
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
OK... I stand corrected
There most certainly is a missing manual for vista.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Does it tell how to completely disable mouse acceleration? I don't mean *kind of* disable. I want the whole thing off. No acceleration. I want a static ratio for my mouse movements (like, N*x), not some parabolic guessing (like x^N). I don't want Windows' default mouse acceleration. I want to move my mouse 12 inches lightning fast, and 12 inches snail slow, and cover the same exact distance. I WANT IT COMPLETELY DISABLED.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
I actually bought the book; I haven't read it yet. I was a hardcore MacOS user at work (1987, System 6 on a Mac II, through 1993, System 7.something, Mac IIfx) and at home (Mac SE, PowerMac 6100AV, iMac DV 400 MHz). I kept current through MacOS 9. I never took the leap to Mac OS X. I thought I'd lose too much hardware, the software upgrades would cost too much, the machine kept on working.
I finally broke down and picked up a second-hand machine (Mac Mini G4 1.42 MHz) with MacOS X Leopard installed. It's all too different; I need more help understanding the features. I don't have the time to learn everything by playing. Oh, and I need to dual boot to Mac OS X 10.3 to get classic, so I can power down the Mac OS 9 machine.
But you will have to do a fsck first.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Does the master keystroke list tell you how to jump to the beginning or the end of the line without using the mouse?
I have never seen that done on a Macintosh computer before. For those of us with a real computer, the 'home' and 'end' keys perform this bit of magic quite universally.
Akarsz Magyar Gentoo fórumot? Akkor
but this is /. so the subtlety was missed :-)
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
"Wouldn't the old Mac OS X Tiger: The Missing Manual [amazon.com] continue to serve most users?"
Not necessarily. Because Leopard is a major upgrade, the Tiger edition might be OK for the basics, but there's always going to be that 10% that will mess people up because it doesn't work that way anymore. For example, the networking, sharing, and printing UI was completely revamped. Also, many of the Spotlight capabilities mentioned in the article summary are new to Leopard. They wouldn't be covered at all in the Tiger edition.
Since OS X has a far smaller user base than Windows, Apple feels less constrained when making major changes to basic things, if they feel there is a long-term payoff. Therefore the pace of change can feel faster than Windows.
ELIZA doesn't "emulate" a therapist, whatever that would mean. It's a parody of a psychiatric interview.
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
on Amazon:
ISBN-10: 059652952X
ISBN-13: 978-0596529529
^A and ^E. Handily, every text box that's a product of the standard libraries on a Mac supports (albeit not desperately, or at all, well documented) basic emacs binding. It's a NeXTStep legacy. So I'm typing this into a standard browser text box in Safari, and ^A, ^E, ^T, ^B, ^F, ^K, ^Y, ^O, ^P and ^N have their expected meanings. The meta/escape versions don't work, and there's no marks (^@ or ^-space), kill ring, and so on. But it's enough to be going on with, and makes typing slashdot posts far more civilised.
Users would of course find that many things from the Tiger "missing manual" would still apply. Obviously, though, anything that changed between Tiger and Leopard would be different. Why wouldn't O'Reilly want to stay up to date?
This really isn't a tough logic problem.
* occasional graphic system hangs (background processes work fine, keyboard and mouse stop working, firing up a new dialog box causes a process to hang)
* Looooong wait times for wake-from-sleep (15 seconds typical) with no indication whether it's going to wake from sleep at all (e.g. if the battery is drained)
* sometimes doesn't sleep when lid is closed (until the battery drops to emergency levels, see above)
* sometimes doesn't recognize monitors when waking from sleep. Sometimes the monitor it doesn't recognize is the macbook's own.
* Fucks up screen geometry when plugged into a 1600x1200 external monitor (menu bar moves to external monitor as needed, but stays at the native-screen width; X windows and most applications silently ignore clicks near the lower or right edges of the external monitor
I'm sorry I ever upgraded to Leopard -- it's such a buggy piece of crap that I'm beginning to feel like I'm using a Microsoft product.
Yes, but according to TFSubmission, it's an "exceedingly well-designed and written" manual.
It all depends on what Dickensian weasel words are worth to you.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
No, but it does become obsolete that fast. Features new to Leopard that were not in Tiger include:
- The ability to create Widgets by selecting portions of Web pages
- Stacks - folder icons that dynamically change to indicate what is in the folder
- A system-wide grammar checker and the system-wide spelling checker/dictionary/theasaurus expanded to include wikipediaand more dictionaries (include non-English languages)
- A new type of viewing in the window/file manager that lets you pan through giant preview "icons" of files
- Updates and new features for most of the consumer applications (mail, calendar, IM, Web browser, Media players, and PDF viewer/image viewer)
- Remote desktop access and sharing integrated into the IM client
- New supported file systems and improved remote filesystem server/client
- Parental controls that include application specific restrictions (no Web browsing after 11pm for little Jimmy)
- Virtual desktops
- Expanded, indexed system-wide searching
- Automated backup/versioning from the GUI
- Completely redone UI for the handicapped (braille boards, audio interface, etc.)
- Dtrace ported from Solaris for developers, and a bunch of other dev tools and new APIs
- Application layer firewall
- Built in mandatory access controls/sandboxes and app signing for security
- A guest account that resets itself to a clean default state each login
Does OSX really change that much from version to version?Yes. 10.n to 10.n+1 is major upgrade akin to going from XP to Vista. As one of those people who doesn't read the manual before diving into something, I'm still finding new features and I've had it for months. Just yesterday I noticed in an e-mail a friend sent me about a concert he was going to downtown "next friday at 9:00", that right clicking on the time, gave me the option of automatically creating an event in the calendar program for that day at that time labelled with the concert name. That's exactly the kind of stuff a book about Leopard is nice for finding out about.
As a recent switcher to Mac, and Windows and *NIX Power User, I am interested in this book. But can someone else tell me if the various ways to simulate right-clicking is really the extent of the "insight and technical arcana" in the book??
I knew about right clicking on the Mighty Mouse and the two-finger touchpad trick months before I even bought a Mac!
Wondering why this doesn't show up on apple.slashdot.org. Hmmm?
So O'Reilly shouldn't update their book? What's your point here?
If you want to buy it, do so. If not, don't.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Will it tell me how to install OSX onto non-proprietary closed hardware?
http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/
Also, it's prominent in the picture at the top of the page.
Yuk yuk yuk. Your wit is painful to witness.
Yeah, remove Application Enhancer before installing Leopard. That always does the trick.
In OS 9 (or was it 8?) they called that Apple Data Detectors. It worked in every app, and was teh awesomes -- but works way better now. In Mail.
I'm glad they are starting to bring it back. I'm hoping that they make the APIs available to other applications in the next release.
Next tech I'd wish they'd bring back? OpenDoc!
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
The ratings given to reviewed books are useless as it is now. Most books are given an 8 or 9, and there doesn't seem to be any system for how to rate the books. For example, the last X books that I looked up under book reviews were given: 7/10, 9, 9/10, 6/10, 8, 8/10, 8/10, 9, 9, 9/10, 9, 8, 8/10, 7/10, 10. The reviewers don't even know if there should be a "/10" in the rating or not. I've also seen ratings on a 1 to 5 scale.
It would be better, if different parts and aspects of the books were given separate ratings, and then a total rating was calculated from the parts. Please also look into how other publications rate books. I'm sure there's a lot to be learned.
There is no such feature. I can understand why it might be desired though. You can simulate it by naming all folders starting with a character that gets sorted to the top, such as a space " " or a dash "-". Similarly if you want them at the bottom, start their names with "zz" or something similar. But you probably already figured this out on your own....
I found these one useful too: http://www.apple.com/business/videotips/
you can subscribe to the videocast. While most video tips are things I knew about, some are truly useful and well hidden features (oops?). The best part is probably the short length of the videotips themselves: 1 minute per week is something I can afford.
And let's not forget the Guided Tour. 30 minutes, but worthed: http://www.apple.com/macosx/guidedtour/
And while I'm a it, there's a new section this year: http://www.apple.com/findouthow/
Animoog.org
...for the rest of John's review. Um, why bother? I read the first 2 sentences and figured he gave it a 10. And look, I'm right.Next!
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Hey!
I am doing my ph.d. on supercomputers. Linux in my field is not just a reality, its the rule. When its not linux, it is... well, solaris, sun os, and, well... mac os X.
Unix is not open source. BSD is. Unix is a property of Novell.
About the multimedia, well, windows is the king today. But the best pc you can run windows today is a mac. Be it a desktop or a notebook.
About easy upgradable computer, are you using intel chips recently? About the media and the ipods, you are wrong, completely wrong. Apple today sets the standards on this field, even on scientific research.
Oh, my country has no macs advertisement, but it is present in top research.
Oh yes, openMPI and XGrid is built-in on macs, and they work together! Tell a university system's administrator that such a system exists and then just prepare yourself to buy them... As we are doing now.
How do you do an fsck? Check the manual in /lost+found of course!
You may want to look into this, then: Classic on Intel.
Set that up, and you won't need your 10.3 install anymore.
Amen to that brother. OpenDoc rocked.
Life's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Yeah -- Leopard needs a manual if consider how boogered up X11 was until the 10.5.2 release, and how amazingly useless Spaces is -- seriously, I had no idea that it was possible to misapply up the multiple desktop metaphor, but Leaopard has "screwed the pooch" on this front, giving us some strange mutant iteration of multiple desktops. It's litterally impossible to do X forwarding from a single terminal and then spread forwarded windows out over two or more "spaces". I'm reverting to Tiger till the 3d party virtual desktop programmers decide they bailed too early on their projects and bring them back from the dead (no -- they dont work in Leopard as is).
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Re: Virtual Desktops
Trust me, if you expect "Spaces" to be like the virtual desktops you're used to in Gnome or KDE -- it isn't. It's practically useless in fact being based on the notion of application partitioning rather than task partitioning. This means if you try to spread out windows from one program over several desktops, you're in for some confusing behavior. And if you used forwarded X sessions over X11 via ssh -- get ready for really crazy behavior unless you keep all your windows on one desktop, and DO NOT open any other terminal windows from your login terminal window -- you'll find you can't even click on previously opened windows if you do that. Of course, it sort of defeats the whole purpose of multiple desktops if you have to keep every application related to X11 open on the one desktop.
I like OS X (Tiger and below), but I'm totally burned with Leopard. The 3d party desktop managers don't even work anymore. I'm ticked and I plan to be noisy about. How many years have I waited for an integrated solution for multiple desktops? And this is what I get? Utter crap that reduces functionality.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
I'll bet RedHat hasn't totally borked the multiple desktop metaphor. Apple's Spaces does application partitioning -- not task partition. God forbid you actually try have two windows from the same application open on different desktops. And if you are using forwarded X sessions via SSH -- you might as well just give up doing any work ever ... till you revert to Tiger and your trusty 3d party multiple desktop program.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
"Dtrace ported from Solaris for developers, and a bunch of other dev tools and new APIs"
You mean the broken Dtrace?
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/22/2156244&from=rss
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
Give me a good reason why someone needs to buy ut