Comments about oreilly Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Second Edition:

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual

by David Pogue

I expected this book to target the end-user and in that respect it met my expectations. I was pleasantly surprised when the author would throw in some of the under-the-hood details. Those little details hint at the power of the BSD-based underpinnings of Mac OS X.

The Missing Manual is exactly what it claims to be: the manual that should have been included with a Mac running Mac OS X. It is filled with a ton of good info ranging from very basic to fairly in-depth. The material is well-organized and thoughtfully laid out, making it easy to find what you're looking for.

My biggest gripe with the book is the interjection of Pogue's opinions. I expected some of the elitest Mac attitude, but some of the things Pogue mentions are pure speculation on his part. Very early in the book, he states Apple's motivation for doing things a certain way when I seriously doubt he has any better insight into Apple's reasons than many other Mac fans. On top of that, he goes on to contradict himself later.

This is a great book if you're relatively new to Mac OS X. If you have some experience with this OS, you'll probably want to skip the first part of the book. The first few chapters are very basic and seem to hold more of Pogue's ramblings than the rest of the book.

Comments about oreilly Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Second Edition:

Congratulations Mr.Pogue.

Comments about oreilly Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Second Edition:

David Exceeds Himself!

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition is not the first Missing Manual I've owned, so my expectations were pretty high. I anticpated clear, concise explanations and instructions given with a sense of fun. I expected an exhaustingly detailed index, an extensive "Troubleshooting" section, and several useful appendices. What I got was way more than that. The "Where Did It Go?" and explanation of folder hierarchies and permissions alone were worth the price of the book. In addition to the humor (without being silly) there is a consistent tone of (and I hate to use this buzzword) empowerment. Even the sections on topics I've never understood were clear enough to allow me to accomplish what was necessary in spite of my own mental block.

Being the "geek" (used VERY loosely) in the family means that I better know how to find or fix things for everyone else, and I was apprehensive about the major changes we'd encounter going from 9 to X.2. (Patience with a learning curve is not one of our virtues.) Not only did the Missing Manual overcome my uncertainty about upgrading, but encouraged me to take the plunge to wireless networking. I can not describe how much the separate accounts for each family member, yet the ability to share applications and the iTunes library have streamlined our computer experience. The one family member who had a phobia about computers now uses it daily.

I've used other software manuals, including those written by the developer, and they're generally awful.

If you only buy one OS X.2 manual, make it this one.

Comments about oreilly Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Second Edition:

It's difficult for me to judge this book because I was bowled over by the clarity, style and organization of the first edition. In any case the 2nd editon was a serious disappointment to me after having read (and thoroughly enjoyed) the first edition...

the book COULD have been much more appealing and interesting for the reader of the first edition if it had been organized it differently; for example, a special section for the differences between os 10.15 and os 10.2....these differences were too embedded in the content to be of any real use to me and THAT's the reason i bought the book!

My suggestion was and still is: make a special edtion for the 2nd time reader (this is the same suggestion i made to mr. pogue in an email!)... with the differences, improvements and disappointments in OS 10.2 (and there are enough, believe me!)

My conclusion: would i have bought it now (after having read 3/4 of the book): NO!

mr. pogues articles about os 10.2 in macuser UK (special edition) were much more informative and interesting than this book!

Comments about oreilly Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Second Edition:

David Pogue comes through (again)!

His first book on OS 10, enabled me to migrate from OS 9 with less pain and more humor than I could have anticipated. As a long-time Mac user (since 1985!) I had become entrenched in its ideosyncrancies (in fact making a living from helping designers and Print shops work with them). OS 10 was not just an upgrade...it was a change of life, and after first installing it, I considered running back to the comfort of OS 9 (where most of my friends and designers still reside). David's writing style, clarity, humor AND thoroughness was my personal friend and tutor through the minefield of OS 10 hell. I read the missing manual chapter by chapter and implemented each nuance as it came up... after a month I was fully converted. It empowered me to actually master the interface, not just to use it. It is actually painful to go back to 9 now.

I eagerly awaited his second version (which covers Jaguar-OS 10.2) and it hasn't disappointed me. Jaguar is a MAJOR upgrade, and even seems to run faster on my old G3 i mac. But the over 150 additions to this version were not on my radar. David again came througth and showed not only what they were, but how to use them (like inkwell) ...but beyond that he has wonderful sidebars that explain how to further take advantage of them and blend them with other aspects of the system.

Hip writer that he is, he has included separate "Where'd it Go?" dictionaries for Mac upgraders as well as for Windows "switchers". He covers the logic of the folder organization for both Mac users and Unix geeks, as well as troubleshooting, Unix Terminal commands, and ichat, ical, .mac. He even shows how to Hack the Mac OS... if you want to. This is truly "the book that should have been in the box"... in keeping with the missing manual's stated goal, and it should reside dog-eared on your desktop- next to your mac, not in the bookshelf. Even if you have the earlier version of the book, once you upgrade to Jaguar, this should be the very next supplement. Even better, buy the book and it will convince you to upgrade to Jaguar ( it even has a handy section on how to do that too)!