Customer Reviews

Mac OS X Bible, Tiger Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a dedicated Mac user, early adopter and long-time customer for the Mac OS Bible, going back to the Lon Poole days. This venerable book has been around for more than a decade and has certainly seen its ups and downs. I am happy to report that this new edition is the most solid version of the book in years, and maybe ever. In addition to its definitive, user-friendly Tiger coverage, it is comprehensive in many other ways as well, even in regard to tips and techniques for using popular third-party apps. What I like most about the book is its easy-to-read get concise style that gets to the point of the topic without beating around the bush. I have yet to find a Tiger topic or answer to a question that this edition doesn't have covered. Great job, Litt & Co.

This is a very good book. It covers a wide range of topics for the beginner to intermediate to the advanced user.

For the beginner to intermediate user it covers the MAC OSX Tiger installation, configuration settings, system preferences, login options, security options, keychain access, games and how to play them, networking, Finder, Fonts. Applications that come with MAC OSX Tiger, Dash board, creating widgets, Spotlight, tinker tool, toast titanium 6, subethaedit, Apple remote desktop, Sherlock, MAC utilities, installing printers (local and networked), Bluetooth, UNIX commands, terminal. iTunes, iSync, iChat calculator and weather in your area application with out having to launch the application. The book also covers .Mac, Safari RSS for internet feeds and Automator. For those interested in the technology that drives the MAC like Darwin and those things that Darwin controls like the MACH Microkernel, memory management, Symmetric Multitasking used to support multiprocessors. It also discusses MAC's application environments like Carbon, Java, cocoa and BSD.

For the advanced user it covers repairing system permissions, maintenance scheduling, memory problems, Apple scripting in detail and scriptable applications. It also includes UNIX scripting commands and switches that most advanced users would probably already know. It covers X Windows, Daemons, ProFTPd, system logs and how to view and understand them.

In summary the beginner that is just looking to learn about the applications this is a good book put there are better books that go into greater detail about the applications like Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Peachpit Learning Series by Robin Williams. For the beginner that is looking to see what is under the hood of MAC Tiger this is a very good book. This is also a very good book for the intermediate user that is looking to become an advanced user. For the already advanced user this book is good but not great.

For the beginner this is 5 star book (while it doesn't go into application detail as much as other books go into it it will help the beginner progress to intermediate and advanced topics).
For the intermediate user this is a 4.5 star book. (Because it does a good job of covering intermediate user topics for the user that is already familiar with the applications). There are a lot of advanced topics here for the intermediate user)
For the Advanced user this is 3.5 star book (Because the book covers a lot of stuff that the advanced user already knows).
My overall rating for this book is 4 stars. The books stated target audience is the beginner to advanced user.

Since I switched from Windows to iMac I was looking for a book the gives me an overview over the system. This book does an excellent job in doing so. It covers everything you need to know goes into some detail, but not too deep (which also would not be possible in a book like this, otherwise it would be thousands of pages long).

I can really recommend this book for people who switch or beginners.

(this is basically the the same review I wrote for the Mac OS X - the missing manual ... I think both are very comparable and equally good ... I preferred the layout of the missing manual, but thats just personal preference)

Why doesn't Apple make a book like this? even on a CD included with the computer? These are powerful machines, yet it takes a 3rd party to explain how to use that power.

I was going to give this book a 4, until I remembered this is for 1st time users of Macs (which I am) and that it covers such a breadth of subjects (including network connections and the Automator) that I figured it deserves a 5.

macosx is a piece of cake to learn, this book hoewver covers anything from basic usage to advanced terminal functions. it also presents a wide range of free utilities that can make the use o macosx more interesting!

The book is HUGE!! It is like from the beginning of "time" and covers everything possible--just as you would envision a bible doing. I really didn't expect the book to be so huge and literally the size of those big ole family bibles on book stands. ;-) Seriously, it is packed full of info, and although not the kind of book you would want to take to the beach to peruse, it is one to use for reference time and time again.

Good reference book to have around. I have used it quite a bit as I have converted from PC to MAC. Very thorough, but written so it can be understood.

This is probably a must have if you're not a computer whiz (which I am certainly not) and you decide to make the switch to Mac. I love my Macbook and will never look back but it's still a steep learning curve to start. The OS X tiger bible is an easy to read reference for the essential problems you may encounter and can't work out on your own. I highly recommend this book.

VERY WELL ORGANIZED AND ESY TO FIND INFO. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE ON TROUBLE SHOOTING OF AREAS. BASICS ETC.
SOMETIMES THE COMPUTOR PEOPLE FORGET THE BASICS AND TROUBLE SHOOTING BY GOING TO HIGH TECH. FOR THE HOME USER.
DICKSTER

I have had this manual for a year, and it's answered very few of my questions. The writing isn't nearly as clear as it could be, but moreover there are a lot of missing topics. Just now I am looking for guidance on uninstalling software, and it's not even mentioned. Earlier today I was looking for help on iTunes, and it couldn't answer my (pretty simple) question on that either. I had Sharon Aker?'s Mac Bible for 0S 9, and it was fantastic. I thought this would be similar, but it's not nearly as good. I hoping to find a better manual.