Customer Reviews

Mac OS in a Nutshell: A Power User's Quick Reference (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book to have full coverage of the Mac OS and many utilities. The book goes into many aspects of the system providing the friendly full featured Mac OS. This book is intended to give some technical knowledge to the reader, and it does it well. The only thing that I find it lacked was more meaty system level details, but I still think that it was a good overall look. Very good book about a great OS!

I placed my order for this book on Amazon in April 1999! Over one year later, it finally arrived on my doorstep. I just finished the EXCELLENT Lingo and Director in a Nutshell books and was looking for the same level of analysis for my preferred OS. I didn't get it. Yes, this is a fine book for beginners, but anyone who has used a Mac for over a year will find little to add to what they have learned through day to day use. As a Mac user, I am not crazy about the choice of a chimp on the book's cover. Is the implication that even a chimp can use the MacOS? It actually comes across as saying the Mac is "not as highly evolved as other OSs" and "Only a monkey would use this product." Let's hope O'Reilly has an excellent OS X book in the pipe to make up for this one.

I should have waited to browse the book in a store before ordering online. This book is clearly inferior to rival products, such as in The Missing Manual series. Many practical tips in the latter are missed entirely in this one. Also, the English in this book is substandard, which sometimes makes it unclear what is being affirmed.

I was expecting a lot more. This book was should have been called Mac OS for dummies. This is not a book for Power users at all; it is geared for beginners. There are a few areas that are a bit much for a new Mac user but this is hardly a book for Power users.

Mac OS in a Nutshell was one of the most interesting books I have ever written. The Mac is an extremely intuitive system to work on, but really understanding how to use its powerful features takes time and patience. I worked harder than I ever have to learn the underpinnings of such technologies as QuickTime 4, ColorSync3 , Sherlock 2, and OpenTransport to present information about how to get the most use out of them, without verboseness or too much jargon.

The beauty of the O'Reilly Nutshell series is its succinctness. The Mac OS book provides tips, tricks, descriptions of processes and tasks without boring you with information you don't need to perform your work. You can either read the book cover to cover or use its chapters to research topics that require the book's indepth coverage.

It was an honor to write this book about the best operating system ever written. The book covers Mac OS 9 and introduces Mac OS X.