UNIX (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

by Deborah S. Ray (Author), Eric J. Ray (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In Unix: Visual QuickStart Guide, the authors take the time to explain correct Unix lingo as well as concepts and processes to be aware of as a daily user. The real-life implication of reading Unix is not only that you won't receive irate messages from your system administrator, but that you'll be able to manipulate your Unix environment, making it a genuinely enjoyable workspace.

For more experienced users, there are plenty of cool tools and shortcuts to make the book worthwhile (sdiff, head, and procmail, for example). The authors provide a generous section on scripting--a good introduction for advanced users who may be spending too much time on repetitive tasks. The authors also touch on how to intelligently include regular expressions in searching, a pleasant addition to an already outstanding section.

Some of the authors' decisions on what to include merit warning, although not enough that users should turn away from this book: the authors only cover the bash, ksh, and csh shells; they focus on only the pico and vi editors--not emacs; and their excellent section on e-mail covers only pine (briefly mentioning that elm really isn't worth its salt for a new user). While the book isn't all-inclusive, it isn't meant to be. The authors make their preferences clear, and for the user, this amounts to a good deal of clarity and time saved. --Jennifer Buckendorff

From Library Journal
UNIX, the life blood of the Internet, is really a pretty simple operating system compared with Windows 95/98/NT. UNIX is actually a superset of the old DOS operating system, and the complexity of UNIX comes from its command line interface (i.e., no graphical user interface). To use the full power of UNIX, the user must know what to type, not simply answer questions. The Rays' book is an excellent beginner's guide and covers everything from viewing and manipulating files and directories to editing files with either VI or Pico to configuring environmental variables, running shell scripts, reading E-mail, encoding and decoding data, and installing software. While not for everyone, this should be popular in both public and academic libraries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (November 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201353954
• ISBN-13: 978-0201353952
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,052,380 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good starting point., February 28, 2000

By	A. Ross (Sydney, AU) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a good starting point to study unix. No unix background required. If you want something shorter than you need "Learning the Unix Operating System" O'Reilly ISBN: 1565923901

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to using unix-based systems., February 4, 2001

By	Maggie the Lizard Tamer (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

This is a good book to help you start with unix-based systems, especially if you do not have any knowledge about how they work. In this book, concepts of file and user management are explained. Not much detail is provided as to not confuse the reader who has had no previous experience with unix. Step-by-step instructions let the reader become more familiar and comfortable with the system. The bottom line is that this book says what it does - it is a starting guide - if you need any in-depth information about unix, you must seek elsewhere.

The book has some mistakes, but if you have at least half a brain, you will be able to figure out what is wrong. In addition, you are constantly reassured that if you are using a system with good administrators, there's little to none damage that you could possibly do. Some parts try to be humorous in its own cute and dorky manner, but the humor is not obnoxious nor imposing. Overall, the book is a gentle introduction; it teaches unix without making the reader feel dumb.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Starter Book, February 17, 2003

By	"amsainz" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

I looked at many many intro books, and this was the best one out there by far. Although a visual UNIX book sounds strange, the visual part means that the author provides examples of input at the command prompt. I am actually thankful to this author for writing this book. (BTW- the classic O'Reilly guide to sys admin would be a great book to get this one with: ISBN 0596003439)