Mac OS X Little Black Book

I was really surprised to read a couple of reviews here making absolutely false attacks about this book. A recent one claims there's little more here than in the tiny guide Apple provides. Don't believe it! The Mac OS X Little Black Book tells you how to use each and every preference panel. The Apple guide doesn't. This book tells you how to make Classic work reliably. The Apple guide doesn't. This book tells you how to reinstall Mac OS X without erasing your drive. The Apple guide doesn't. And on and on. I enjoyed this book, because it provides solid information and doesn't just provide material for amusement as some other books (like that "Lost," which is really "Missing Manual" tries to do). I highly recommend Mr. Steinberg's book.

I bought this book awhile back, when Mac OS X first came out, and it was a tremendous help in getting me over the rough spots in getting the new system to run on my vintage B & W Power Mac G3.So when I read a review from some dude who claims, "Between simple experimentation and using Help, you will quickly learn more than you will ever get from reading this book," I stare in disbelief. There is no way that person could have read this book, beyond perhaps a few pages. The information in the troubleshooting section alone is more than worth the price, and it contains information that is definitely NOT in the Help menus, nor something you could just hang out there and figure out for yourself.I wonder why people trash books when it's clear they never read the book in the first place. I read this book and it's great! And that's all I have to say about the subject.

I am a fairly experienced Mac user, so I wondered why some of the reviewers here say this book is only for beginners who don't know anything about Macs. In fact, the book does what it's supposed to do, provide no-frills instructions on moving to Mac OS X. I enjoyed the generous amount of tips and tricks through the book, and the large troubleshooting section that got me out of trouble on more than one occasion. I'm also glad the book didn't dwell on unnecessary command-line stuff, and concentrated on the material Mac OS X users really need. Well-written, and definitely recommended for experienced Mac users.

I am an experienced Mac user, but I don't like to read computing books. So many of them are written in a drab, cold style, as if they, themselves, were written by computers. The Mac OS X Little Black Book is a happy exception. Well-written and well-organized. I especially appreciated the approach, the In Brief sections that provide short explanations on how things under Mac OS X work and then the Immediate Solutions section, where everything is spelled out with in a simple step-by-step form. Highly recommneded!

I am not a beginning Mac user. I've had Macs for years, and I appreciated this book for its forthright writing and easy step-by-step information. It helped me switch over to Apple's new operating system without trouble or tribulation. I especially enjoyed the troubleshooting section and the terminal tips that helped me get over a couple of rough spots. This is a book on a Unix-based system for folks who want practial information and not arcane commands.