How Macs Work

This book was written by two gentlemen with whom I had the good fortune to work at MacUser Magazine (before it was acquired by MacWorld). John Rizzo was Technical Editor at MacUser, and he's easily the most accurate and informed author available for this kind of book. Dan Clark is one of America's most gifted technical illustrators; his "see through" drawings of computers & components always AMAZE other artists and even the most hardcore techies. True to the Mac tradition, this book feels like a looking-glass that lets you float knowlingly through complex electronics, instead of boring you with Windoze-style "hardware documentation." A great gift for budding young geeks and undecided potential Mac owners.

This book did a great job of really explaining how the Mac and all the stuff inside it work. It's really good if you want a broad knowledge base for how the computer works inside and out. You'll learn about memory, CPU's, drives, peripherals (monitors, keyboards, mices) and all kinds of other stuff. What this book DOESN'T do is tell you how to work it. You won't learn how to run the operating system or how to set up an ethernet network, for example.However, you WILL understand how that stuff works with your computer and what's going on behind the scenes when you're word processing. There's lots of pictures to describe the stuff they're talking about, too. One thing I didn't like was that the pictures were often numbered out of order which meant I had to go searching for the next numbered picture to read. It's quibbling, I know, but it happened a lot and made the book harder to read.I recommend this book if you have a fear of computers and want to know just what the heck is going on. I'm glad I got it. For example, why do you have to shut down your computer? Why is it bad if it loses power or you unplug it? Because the hard drive must park. If it doesn't park, the wafer thin disks inside could become damaged if the read head touches them. Then your computer dies. I learned that from the book! It's kinda rudimentary, and if you knew that already, and you know what a processor cache is then you can probably skip this book. But, if you're dying to know, then pick it up!

This is an excellent book that needs updating. Design is very good and explanations are clear. Essential topics such as the PowerPC G3 and G4, "Velocity Engine", AirPort, Firewire, DVD, Mac OS X, are not covered. Wait for a new edition.

As an instructor of computer graphics for designers I give very high marks to this publication. Great images, captions and text. For introductory students all is approachable and the gamut of material is broad enough to go on helping outside of the classroom when it comes time to configure their own work stations. Understanding how it all works helps and helps again when trouble shooting. This publication is too old now (1996) so I hope Ziff Davis is listening in!

For people who don't have technical backgrounds, this book presents the inner workings of the Macintosh in straight-forward language and beautiful color illustrations. It explains technical concepts and gives you an idea of what is going on inside the box. It's very similar to "How Computers Work," but more Mac-like.