 Trust me - BUY THIS BOOK - A pleasure to read!
I have been using Mac computers since 1986. For the past 8 years, I have been editing films and videos professionally on Apple's top-of-the-line Macs, from System 8 to the current OS 10.1.
David Pogue has written a book that takes the anxiety out of switching to a brand new operating system. I consider myself a professional Mac user, and still this book was not only educational, but extremely informative and pleasing to read. The graphic examples and writing style will make the beginner as well as the advanced user happy they purchased this.
The book never 'talks down; to the reader. Instead, David Pogue brings the reader inside the Mac, showing us how the new OS thinks, and how it is now easier and more fun then ever to work on a Macintosh.
Many people not familiar with OS X do not realize how advanced and how sophisticated an operating system it is. "The Missing Manual" covers OS 10.1 and is an excellent introduction to the new operating system, and an excellent presentation. I love having OS X on my Macintosh....Don't forget to "Think Different" and give this book a well-deserved look. Enjoy!
This book is the perfect companion to your Macintosh.
Having switched to the superior Macintosh platform a few years ago I was left wondering exactly how to do things. The Macintosh is painfully easy to use but there are times when you need help "thinking differently". As a long time Windows user I had to "re-learn" a few things in order to achieve the objective of a fluid computer-user dynamic. Because of the Macintosh, and this book, using computers is fun again!This book is simultaneously educational and enjoyable! Imagine that, a *computer book* being enjoyable! This is not your father's Fortran/Cobol, dryly written instructional book, that's for sure. David Pogue's writing style is both thorough and concise. He writes with a wry and immediately likable levity that simply makes you enjoy reading about Mac OS X. His writing for NYTimes.com, O'Reilly & Associates and various "For Dummies" books has undoubtedly helped hone his technique. If you're a person switching to Mac OS X from Mac OS 9 you'll find the "Where'd It Go" section immensely helpful. It details the differences between OS 9 and OS X and how to find that certain program or preference you used before. It also has a "Where'd It Go" for Windows users, which shows how to do things "the Mac way" and help ease the migration from Windows to Mac OS X. Even if you're completely new to computers, this book will undoubtedly alleviate your fears and help you get to working with Macs in a very fast manner. It's a great "In A Nutshell" type book, but unlike some of those books it bridges the gap between complete novice and intermediate user needs. If you're looking for an advanced/expert book or one covering unix then you'd probably want to look at O'Reilly's "Learning Unix For Mac OS X" or "Mac OS X In A Nutshell". Even though this book is written for novices and intermediate users, it covers some unix/terminal commands. It also covers how to use the web, FTP, SSH/Telnet, VPN, Firewall, networking, burning CD's and DVD's, making mp3's and playing them and so on. But it does so in an easy to understand fashion. The nice thing about this book, besides how easy it is to read and all the things it will help you do, is that it can be read from front to back or can be read by skipping around at your whim. Once you read this book you'll be able to do nearly anything on your Macintosh. And that's what its all about. Pros: 1) very intelligently written
2) thorough, without being boring
3) concise and to the point
4) lots of "how to's" with actual screenshots from Mac OS X
5) covers all aspects of using a Macintosh
6) very current (covers the latest version of OS X called "Jaguar" as of 2003)
7) great index Cons: None
Missing No Longer
I 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._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 exisiting 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 that OS X contains nothing at all from the previous versons of the operating system 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. 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. Definitely recommended.
|
