I've owned my MacBook Pro now for 10 months. It's a fantastic computer. I got so tired of XP running me, instead of me running my computer, that I bought a Mac after consulting with many friends. I learned how to get into my work computer over the Internet in Space 4, run XP in Space 2 and run Leopard in Space 1 and seamlessly switch between all of them. The Internet is lightning fast with Safari with no Virus checking software. No need. The actual computer does not need the most extreme processor clocks or memory to be super fast because it runs Unix at the core on Intel processors. There is no bloat or waste or slowness that is common with XP and VISTA. They actually waste your computers actual power to, well, compute. I boot up in 40 seconds. More impressive is that I shut off in 6 seconds. No waiting for Windows to shut down or finish installing something. When Leopard needs to download an update you can easily put it off till you are ready and not interrupt your work. There are so many good things about the Mac that it's impossible to write here.
So what about the book? Well, it's pretty easy to adjust to the directory and file structure of a Mac as opposed to Windows but it is different. The instructions that come with the Mac are pretty minimal and poor. Yes, you learn the basics quick but if you don't read this book and learn what Leopard can really do you are missing about 80% of what a Mac is really about. It's a long book that covers everything there is to know about the Mac and Leopard. You may only want to refer to chapters that you need to know more about. It's a reference book. But reading it from cover to cover is the only way to truly understand and take full advantage of this computer and operating system. This is truly the Missing Manual that should of been included with the computer. It is well worth the money to buy this book. There are so many mouse clicks, key strokes and ways to do things easily and quickly that it opens up another world to your Mac. You can do everything from a mouse, or the keyboard or any way you are comfortable with. If you use your Mac a lot you will speed up what you can do with the shortcuts that this book describes. I find it very cumbersome to go back to a Windows computer.
If you only use your computer for email and the Internet then maybe you won't benefit from this book. If you do a lot of file manipulation, pictures, video, music you will definitely want to get this book and learn WAY more than what you can get out of the box and by poking around trying to learn the programs.
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