Customer Reviews

Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is primarily a "Unix 101" book. I would approximate that about half of the book is general Unix information that applies to all Unix/Linux variants. The other half goes over how to use these commands with Tiger.

It's not a big book and doesn't go into great detail, rather it gives short introductions to Unix utilities. For example, entire books are written on grep and regular expressions, but here there are only seven pages or so devoted to this topic. If you're already pretty comfortable with Unix, you may want to check out a different book (Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks, for example).

I liked (and wish there had been more of) the information on mdls and mdfind, which gives you command line access to Spotlight metadata information.

I think the chapters on X11 and Fink, while interesting, might be a little too advanced for the beginner. In my opinion, there isn't enough information on X11 and you should be pretty comfortable with Unix before diving into Fink.

If you've never opened up Terminal to get a glimpse of Tiger's Unix capabilities, this is a great introduction. Just be careful with the sudo command! :)

I am a "Classic" Mac OS "Power User." I was accustomed to the power and flexibility of the Classic Mac OS coupled with various third-party utilities & software.

Upon recently acquiring an iMac DV with Tiger installed, I wanted to be able to wield similar power over this new computer, but I saw that in order to do so, I would need to learn Unix, since the various third-party utilities I was using previously would not work on Tiger. So I spent some time reading "man" pages and trying to find internet resources, but all the internet resources assumed a basic knowledge of unix, and reading "man" pages presented me with more information than I could process, as all the unix commands have such a large host of options.

Shortly thereafter, a friend got me this book. Unlike other materials I had seen, this book did not get bogged down in complex details. Instead, it "walks" the user through the totally novel (to mac users) environment of Terminal, explaining the terse grammar of UNIX, touching on the most useful options.

Some cool things I learned from this book include:
How to use the terminal to ftp to a site (you don't need fetch!)
How to use regular expressions and wildcards to quickly sort through scads of data
How to "pipeline" commands to automate in a way that would be much more difficult using applescript.
How to change the terminal prompt.

Perhaps after the next book, I'll feel confident enough to set up the SSH server.

When I emailed Mr. Taylor with a question, I was amazed when he actually responded. He seems like a really cool guy, and I think I'll get his next book, the one on shell scripting.

I had really high hopes for this book. I consider myself a pretty smart Mac tech, but Unix was the one thing that really scared me about OS X. To fix some esoteric problem, I'd have to follow some Unix recipe and it always annoyed me I didn't understand what I was typing. O'Relly books are well known not just for the animals on the cover, but excellent explanations of very technical concepts.

After reading Taylor's book, I felt better, but not by much. Most readers can easily understand the basic unix file structure commands, but towards the middle of the book he inaccurately assumed that his readers could also quickly understand some of the advanced concepts. Towards the end of the book I was left scratching my head. We went from move a file here and there to commands that were taking up multiple lines. Arrrgh!

The critical flaw in the book was a lack of exercises and real world examples. When I want to learn something, I don't just want to be told. Involve me and test my knowledge. Some of the more difficult concepts covered in the book would have been enhanced with numerous real world examples, each building on the other. Things moved way too fast and made it easy to get lost.

The book was an excellent overview of Unix for the Macintosh and perfect for someone to decide whether to pursue further learning. "Introduction to Unix" instead of "Learning Unix" would have been a better title. After reading the book, I was reminded of speed dating where you meet 20 people for five minutes each and decide whether you want to go out with them or not. After reading the book I have enough familiarity with Unix that I can understand basic commands and how they relate to each other. I clearly want to go out on another date but any type of wedding bells are way in the distance.

PROS: Excellent overview of Unix for the Macintosh
CONS: Doesn't leave you with enough practical understanding

3 out of 5 dog cows

Dave Taylor makes Unix on the Mac accessible, easy to understand, and fun.
New languages can be a puzzle. Quite a bit of time can be spent just trying to understand enough so that you can actually start "learning".
Unix for Mac OS X Tiger can be read chapter by chapter or randomly after the first few chapters. Thanks for Dave Taylor's easygoing yet complete explanations I "got it" in a weekend. "Got it" for me means that I have enough information and understanding to use his book (or the man pages) like a cookbook.
If you want a new world opened up for you - get this book. It is delightful.
This book gets 6 stars but the pulldown only goes to 5.

first off let me say that this book is extermly well written has excellent examples and the author is easy to understand. as a beginner to unix but not to mac i found this book easy to understand but it lacks detail. i think its done on purpose because the author does not wish to overwelm the reader. however the book really suffers because of lack of detail. i would have liked more on fink and x11. x11 is just introduced and than never talked about again. he never says why you should use it, whats good about it and why it even exsists. if you want a book that goes into great detail get matisse enzer unix for mac os x tiger. its a great book and has alot more detail and examples than learning unix for mac os x tiger.

It's no secret that I rarely review technical books. The big reason for this is that I buy such books to either get a handle on software or hardware issues and tend to only read enough so that I can understand what the real techies are trying to tell me. Sadly, gone are the days of my being a brilliant analyst and designer and only process and architecture are my lot.

The arrival a few years ago of a Mac Titanium portable created an opportunity that I promised to take advantage of - sooner or later. Finally, I decided it was time. For those of you who don't know, laying underneath the Mac's glossy user interface is a very well implemented UNIX environment. Thus my first goal was twofold - learn something of the Mac's software underpinnings and to refresh my leaking UNIX skills. Nowadays, almost all is forgotten, other than nervous efforts at 'ls' and 'cd'. When I discovered 'Unix for Mac OS X Tiger' I bought it, and I can honestly state that I read the whole thing. And even enjoyed it.

Dave Taylor manages to take the reader through a tour of Unix as the Mac expresses it, showing the reader the marvels of the terminal command line. While he never forgets to introduce the idiosyncracies of the Mac, the truth is that Unix on the Mac (aka Darwin) is pretty much a vanilla Unix, and the book is really an introduction to Unix. And a pretty good one at that. Taylor avoids the excruciating deep dives that many texts fall into, limiting himself to 250 pages of dense but readable discussion that will enable you to work in Unix on the Mac, although you won't be a wizard.

Too often technical writers feel compelled to his the 1000 page barrier. This book is a quarter the size. If you want to know everything about vi or emacs, or study shell scripting than you will either want a thicker book, or several thinner books on you topics of interest. Given the usual weight of my briefcase, I refer the latter. Taylor's book will take you through all the standard commands, help you set up your Xterm, and even introduce you to the vagaries of fink. And it's readable enough so that you won't fall asleep in the middle of a regular expression.

I have no qualms about recommending this book, especially if you are a novice Unix user who is only beginning to heed the call of his (or her) inner geek.

OS X and its UNIX are truly amazing. I like easy to read book and I also had assumed that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs includes 4 Unix Academy Certifications ed.2008 that is complete UNIX course recorded. It also comes with entire UNIX library that covers every subject beginner may think of. These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. The DVD is also made on the basis of Apple's OS X Unix so they really work together. Sure it is a way to start there much of more advanced reading that will take over you with a time however these two provide you with the BASIS!
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around

As a long-time Mac user, Unix was new to me but very exciting once I started tinkering with it. I picked up what I could around the web but knew there were significant holes in my understanding of the fundamentals of Unix. This book was perfect in that it brought both the fundamentals you would get in many Unix books (without being boring) as well as talking about some significant Tiger-specific command line tools like atprint and mdfind (Tiger's Spotlight - a huge improvement over existing Unix search tools). I highly recommend this for anyone who wants the whole picture of how to best use Unix in Tiger.

Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger should be on the bookshelf of ALL experienced Macintosh owners wanting to learn OS X's real benefits. While most users are aware that OS X is built over Unix, few understand how to access their hidden benefits. This is the book that shows you!

O'Reiley and writer Dave Taylor, opened the Unix door leading us to using Macintosh's 'unknown' pluses. Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger enables us to use built-in features and thousands of pieces of free software. Working knowledge gained from this title helps one develop confidence to 'enter' your system's Terminal application and activate more helpful software.

This "Unix 101" publication literally takes you by the hand and walks you into the Unix world. If you know Macintosh basics but are new to Unix, now is the time for Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger. If you already have Unix experience you may want a more comprehensive title. For most, using this book will fill your need.

I found this book very helpfull. I am new to Unix and the book took me through all the basic commands.