Reviews for Mac OS X UNIX Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for the Mac OS X

1. A useless book for nobody

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   I can't figure out who this book is aimed at. It says in the book that it is for people with experience of unix systems who want to learn how to use those skills on a mac, but this is completely stupid because 99% of unix commands are the same for Bash on osx as they are for Bash on other unix based OSs. As i read through the book I found that NOTHING is explained at all, it's like reading the author's notes on the subject.
   Commands like 'ls' might be obvious (list), but other commands like 'ifconfig' mean nothing at all unless explained. But you are supposed to know already what all the shortcut codes mean, in which case you already know everything in this book, are already a unix admin and do not need this book.
   Also in this book for intermediate/experienced users are useful tips like how to turn your computer off using the mouse and the shutdown menu item, seriously?! You know what all the commands mean but you don't know this? Have you ever seen a computer before? What bizarre parallel universe do the authors live in?
   
   All the information that can be obtained from bash commands IS NEVER EXPLAINED thus rendering it useless. Again, if you already know what all the info is, you won't need this book to get it.
   
   Appendixes are useless and irrelevant, a huge section about Fink Commander, but nothing much useful at all.
   
   On top of which the proofreading was done by a poorly trained chimp and the book is full of mistakes.
   Avoid at all costs, just a buy a good unix / BASh book until a seriously revised version of this comes out (hopefully never).

2. very comprehensive book about UNIX

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, June 12st, 2009

   I am impressed with the detail in this book. It does require some basic knowledge of the command structure but even if you do not have that the reader might benefit from this (although I would not recommend it if you are utterly novice to an Apple Mac).
   Good buy with plenty of tips and commands