Product Description

Mac OS X combines the power/stability of Unix with the simplicity of the Mac. The new Aqua interface makes everything even more intuitive. At the foundation of Mac OS X lies an Unix-based operating system that delivers stability and performance providing advanced features such as protected memory, preemptive multitasking, advanced memory management, and symmetric multiprocessing. It includes easy-to-use tools for making movies, managing music, capturing digital camera photos, burning music and data CDs, playing DVD movies, and even authoring DVDs. The Classic technology runs thousands of existing Mac OS 9-compatible applications.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1872542 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 928 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Mastering Mac OS X goes beyond Apple's own hardcopy documentation which is minimal at best and lays bare the workings of this state-of-the-art operating system. Apple's Mac OS X is a quantum leap in the operating system for the Macintosh computer, offering stability and depth that is unheard of in a desktop consumer-level operating system. The price for all this strength: OS X is far deeper and more complicated than any previous version of the Mac operating system so a concise guide is essential.

Five main parts comprising 25 chapters make up this 800-page tome, covering such topics as installing Mac OS X; comparing X to OS X Server and OS 9.X; the new interface; network architecture; and configuring user accounts, privileges, and network communications.

Part III, "Getting Things Done with Mac OS X", discusses the use of the bundled applications (Mail, Address Book, Preview, Keychain Access, Grab, etc.), as well as the new printing architecture and how to set up printers and manage colour with ColorSync, using Quicktime and automating the OS and applications using AppleScript.

The book falls short on only a few things. There is little reference to its heritage (Next's NeXTStep OS) or other carryover features from NeXTStep (such as Net Info) and not much about the Unix startup process and the scripts that run during boot-up (although you will learn that you can hold down "Command-V" to see system messages during booting). It is much more focused on bringing up to speed an experienced Mac user, not necessarily a user with some Unix experience who needs to know just how Apple is handling Unix.

There are many good things about this book--the troubleshooting section is informative and there's a terrific chapter on using Terminal and writing Unix shell scripts. The appendix "Installing and Setting up Mac OS X" in Mastering Mac OS X goes far beyond Apple's own minimal hardcopy documentation, as do the chapters on the preinstalled applications.

Mastering Mac OS X makes a fine handbook for users anxious to dig into the new operating system, and it offers a subtle introduction to some of the core Unix workings. --Mike Caputo

From the Back Cover
Isn't It Time You Made the Most of Mac OS X?

Don't let the fact that Mac OS X boasts over 150 new features, is based on Unix, and is also called Jaguar scare you off. This essential guide will help you get all you can out of it. Mastering Mac OS X, Second Edition shows you how to take advantage of every aspect of Apple's powerhouse operating system. Whether you're a Mac newbie or old-timer or you're converting from Windows or Unix, this book will answer all your current questions and equip you with the knowledge you need to keep moving forward. Over 900 pages of coverage includes:

Personalizing Mac OS X: Dock, Desktop, and Finder
Using the Classic environment and Classic applications
Encrypting data, storing passwords, and using built-in applications
Configuring user permissions and settings
Connecting to the Internet
Troubleshooting and securing your Internet connection
Using, automating, and securing e-mail from viruses
Using QuickTime 6, QuickTime Pro, and iMovie to play, edit, and export movie files
Burning audio and data CDs and playing MP3s, Internet radio, and DVD movies
Importing, exporting, and editing digital images
Building a secure network and sharing files locally and over the Internet
Using Windows and Unix documents, networking protocols, and applications
Working with Terminal and Darwin command lines and Darwin applications
Backing up and recovering data, managing your disks and peripherals
Configuring and tweaking Apache, FTP serving, PHP, MySQL, and QuickTime streaming
Quickly diagnosing and solving common system-level problems
Troubleshooting Classic and native applications

About the Author
Todd Stauffer is the Macintosh columnist for Peak Computing Magazine and co-host of the Emmy-winning television show Disk Doctors, airing nationally on JEC Knowledge TV. His column "Happy Endings" appears weekly on the Mac news Web site Webintosh. Todd has written several books on the Macintosh, including Mac Upgrade and Repair Bible and Using the Internet With Your Mac.

Customer Reviews

A good spread of information from the basics upwards.
Before this book arrived, I'd seen some other general works on OSX, and they were all disappointing. This one is not at all bad, though. Stauffer starts with the basics of the OSX user interface and adds more and more detail. He covers such goodies as networking (including AirPort), and goes on to describe some handy command line stuff. He even describes how to install and set up Samba. He does shy away from some more complex stuff, though. He tantalisingly describes OSX's built-in ability to handle NFS, for example, but falls short of actually describing how to set it up, instead opting for the ol' "consult your system administrator" get-out. I'm pleased with my purchase, and I'd recommend it for experienced Mac users who want to know how to use OSX properly.

Comprehensive and thorough
I have to confess that I approached the nearly 900 pages of Todd and Kirk's book with a feeling of 'Oh no, not another Mac operating system book - I'll leave that until I have time for it... maybe when I retire'. My shelves contain many such books, dating back to MacOS 7. Most are unthumbed.

However, I was wrong: this book stands out by its thoroughness, and the fact that, while thoughtfully catering for OS 8/9 migrants, it also goes well beyond the basics of OS X. Now that MacOS has 'come of age' with the Panther release, this book is appropriate.

'Mastering Mac OS X' covers just about everything you could need to know about OS X and its bundled applications, with welcome mentions of shareware and commercial software where this appropriate. It starts gently for those unfamiliar with OS X, but - and this is where it differs from a lot of its competition - goes well beyond into heavyweight stuff like AppleScript, X Windows, Darwin, using OS X as a web and ftp server, the command line, shell scripts, and even 'secret' features such as Inkwell.

I found it hard to criticise anything about this book. There are one or two omissions: AppleScript Studio is mentioned only in passing, and iDVD not at all – but to be fair, AppleScript Studio is the subject of a book in its own right. There are also places where the extra warning or two might not be inappropriate, such as when wildcards are introduced immediately after the 'rm' command, but my only main gripe is nothing to do with the authors at all – I found the italicized paragraphs a bit hard on the eyes.

The sections on AppleScript, networking, security and troubleshooting are probably worth the price of the book alone. If you only buy one OS X book, this should be a strong candidate. Recommended.

Mastering Mac OSX
Clear, concise and thorough. Sufficiently involved for the expert and accessible and clear for the novice. A must for every Mac OS X user.