Mac OS X Help Line, Panther Edition

by Ted Landau

Bestselling author and founder of the MacFixIt Web site Ted Landau arms readers with all the knowledge they need to keep their Mac OS X machines up and running smoothly. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321193873
• ISBN13: 9780321193872
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Peachpit Press
• Length: 750 Pages
• Weight: 4.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.5" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A great technical referance book

This is a real go to book for troubleshooting under the hood types of Mac issues as well as looking for "how do I do this" types of information. I have been a computer technician for many years and have used a lot of technical books and I can say that this is one of the best I have used. It covers just about any issue you could come across in depth but concisely which every technician can appreciate. This book will help you diagnose a problem, tell you how to fix it and where to get the tool to fix it if need be. For people that use the Terminal a lot it covers UNIX quite well. It will walk you through creating bootable hard drives and DVD's, configuring firewalls, installing 3rd party applications, configuring permissions. The book also covers the iApps, iCal, iChat, iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iPod, iSync and iTunes applications and so much more. This book will be very helpfull for everyone from the beginer to the most advanced user. This is another outstanding Peachpit press publication.

MyMac.com Book Review

MacFixit web site founder and author Ted Landau's newest book, Mac OS X Help Line, Panther Edition, has joined the ranks of David Weeks' favorite OS X books. Until now, I've recommended David Pogue's OS X The Missing Manual for beginners and intermediate Mac users. The nod for best advanced/expert level book has gone to Mac OS X Unleashed, penned by John and William Ray. I've got to add Mac OS X Help Line (Help Line for short) to the canon of best OS X books. The Ray brothers' Unleashed is geared more toward the Unix-oriented sysadmin/expert user. In contrast, Landau's Help Line is written for the sophisticated OS X end user; someone who doesn't need the plumb the Uniy depths of OS X, yet needs detailed information on complex topics. Landau has found the right balance: he provides 1144 pages of OS X depth and detail that "normal" people can use. Help Line does sit firmly in the "boat anchor" category (try holding it out at arm's length for a minute or so), but if there's an OS X question that you or I could pose, it'll most probably have the answer. I could easily list the sections I found most interesting, but this review would swell to three or four pages. Suffice to say that you can find detailed information on fonts (one of OS X's least intuitive areas), printing, permissions, and the OS X startup sequence. Each section has plenty of "Technically Speaking" or "Take Note" sidebars to add even more detail to particular topics. Like almost all OS X books, Help Line covers the basics on the iApps that ship with OS X. Don't buy Help Line for the cursory coverage it provides on Safari, for example. Buy it for the detailed background information and troubleshooting tips for networking, instead. Help Line's production values are very good: the screen shots are clear and legible. Sidebars are set off with background colors that don't get in the way of legibility. The binding has to hold 1144 pages together; I hope it lasts more than a year or two! Now, Ted may object to my characterization of Help Line not being a newbie book, saying that he's written a book accessible to all. I beg to differ. The Mac newbie will probably be scared off by the pages of detail on complex subjects, as she pages through Help Line trying to find out how to just rename a file. Pogue's Missing Manual will better serve the beginner. Even so, I can't speak highly enough of this book. If you want the best work for advanced/expert Mac users who seek to learn more about the guts of OS X, but not from a systems administrator's standpoint, buy Landau's Mac OS X Help Line Panther Edition. MyMac rating 5 out of 5

Easy to understand, a life-saver, essential for OS X users

Ted Landau is the proprietor of MacFixIt, the pre-eminent web site for late-breaking information on what's working with OS X, what's not, and how to fix it. The site has grown to enormous proportions over the years, though, and it can be hard to find a fix or troubleshooting method for a particular problem or issue. The answer is to buy this book. Not just for troubleshooting problems, but also for understanding how OS X works. And he doesn't hold back punches ... lots of times he mentions things like "Apple says [X] should work this way, but in my tests, it doesn't, instead, many users find [Y] works better." Trust this guy. His book compiles and organizes just about everything on his site having to do with understanding and troubleshooting OS X/Panther and more, (and a lot of Jaguar, Classic and OS 9) in a crystal-clear, step-by-step way, with tons of sidebars that go into detail on tangenital topics. I've been using OS X for years, and train others how to use it, but via this book I finally understand the difference between a .pkg and an .app for example, and how to make a bootable troubleshooting CD, and tons more information. It is a phenomenal piece of work. I don't know how he did it! I was on the waiting list for it for months, but it was worth the wait. I would've paid three times the price just in recognition of the amount of work it must've taken to write this opus. Ted makes sure that complete OS X newbies are gently introduced to how OS X works, yet at the same time provides a ton of information and tips to OS X geeks who live in Terminal. For example, in one small section of Chapter 3, he goes step by step -- in more detail and with more clarity than I've ever seen -- through the different application environments (Cocoa, Carbon, Classic, Java), making sure to always talk about why/when this should make a difference to you and how you can use the knowledge to help troubleshoot problems. In this same section, there's a page-long sidebar explaining a fundamental difference between OS 9 and X, that is, single-user vs. multiple-user. He mentions a couple different OS 9 technologies that I had forgotten about that tried to "enable" multi-user functionality in OS 9; and how OS X is set up from the start as a multi-user system. Ted mentions in this sidebar that when you install OS X, the first user account is created (normally, the one for yourself, the installer) with admin privileges, and that *this user is by default set to "automatically log on" when the machine is started up or rebooted.* For this reason, many newbie OS X users don't realize that the mutli-user functions are in effect even if they've just installed OS X and are the only user. (And of course he tells how to turn off the automatic log-on feature.) Many hard-core OS X users don't understand (or remember) how perplexing it can be for newcomers, and little facts like this one -- automatic login is enabled for the first user by default -- can easily escape them.

MUST HAVE

If you only buy one book for your MAC Computer-this is the one to get!Ted Landau's advice is without a doubt invaluable. His vast knowledge of the MAC and the Panther OS comes thru in easy to understand and simple to carry out trouble shooting advice. Even though the MAC is usually reliable, problems can occur. This is the book to go to before panic sets in. I have used the previous additions over the years, and only can give his "Help" advice the utmost praise. I have recommended the prior editions to other MAC users, and they have blessed his words. There is not only advice for correcting problems, but also preventing them. Apple should include a copy with every MAC .This book should be owned by every MAC user. IF YOU HAVE A MAC-PUT THIS BOOK NEARBY!!!