I first opened my Powerbook just over a year ago. That special gas they store under the keyboard sprayed out, I breathed in, and I was hooked. I've gone from being a ten-year Linux user to being a Mac newbie, and I'm loving it. My Powerbook is my primary machine: I even typeset our two latest books on it. For me it's an ideal combination of convenience and power. I can use the nice GUIs when I want, but underneath it all there's a Unix heart and the command line. Except...

It isn't just Unix. There's a whole new world of stuff waiting for users like me who only recently drank the Apple kool-aid. I'm not used to the various configuration schemes, the various databases for user-level information are obscure, and so on.

And that's where JDD's book comes in. I was lucky enough to be a reviewer, and I just lapped it up. It is packed with information on all aspects of Panther, ranging from the high-level down to the lowest level nitty-gritty detail. The chapters are just the right length: tight enough to keep you reading, but not so small that they miss out on the details you need.

The only bad thing? If you're like me, you'll spend hours experimenting with all the new stuff you learn while reading this book.

A must have for power Panther users.

A little cognitive dissonance or impedance mismatch, perhaps, on the cover. It says "Panther" but shows some kind of dog. Luckily, the rest of the book does not exhibit similar inconsistencies. :)

For starters, the first chapter is an excellent independent summary of Apple's operating system history since 1984's Macintosh release. It makes clear that Panther is the third major iteration of OS X. Nice new improved usability features like XCode for developers and an improved Finder.

If you are acquainted with unix/linux or Microsoft Windows, you should get the message from this book that Apple still leads in the cleanest combination of operating system and user interface. Unix fans will see much friendly territory. Indeed, who would have thought 10 years ago that Apple would converge its operating system atop unix? A brilliant move that lets it leverage off ideas and innovations in unix and linux. In fact, a virtual necessity. Apple's market share is so small that it cannot maintain a brute force matching of competitors' features, let alone surpass these.

Apple fans can read this book and come away encouraged that Apple can still innovate and punch above its weight. It has a future, despite the repeated pronouncements of people like Michael Dell.

Please note that Davidson is explicitly writing for experienced Mac users, though you do not have to be currently running OS X?
(Why aren't you?)

I consider this book to be the ideal companion to "The Missing Manual". Indeed, "Running Mac OS X Panther" is the Red Pill for Mac OS X users because it takes you beneath the applications into the Panther underworld where all the interesting stuff happens. I found the depth of the book's content to be truly unique. From Panther's killer app -- the Terminal -- to working with Open Directory, reading through the book was a journey that quickly transformed me from a mainstream Mac junkie into an enlightened power user.

Take the Red Pill. You'll be glad you did.