Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion
(O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle)
When I showed this book–and its “Going Deep with the Terminal and Shell”–tagline to my Mac-centric wife, her first response was: “Why?”
Her Macintosh, she declared, already does everything she needs it to do, with no fuss. Why bother with terminals and shells–and Unix?
I, on the other hand, started working with computers back in the days when everything was done at the command line, programs and data were stored on recording tape, and 48K of RAM was stunning state of the art.
So I am happy with Dave Taylor’s observation in his new book that “there are over a thousand Unix commands included with OS X—and you can’t see most of them without accessing the command line. From sophisticated software development environments to web browsers, file transfer utilities to encryption and compression utilities, almost everything you can do in the Aqua interface—and more—can be done with a few carefully chosen Unix commands.”
Indeed, he notes, “…dipping into the primarily text-based Unix tools on your OS X system gives you more power and control over both your computer and your computing environment.”
He lists some other, enticing reasons to learn and use the Unix tools available in OS X. There are, for example, “thousands of open source and otherwise freely downloadable Unix applications,” including the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) that is a convenient and affordable alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
“Fundamentally,” he says, “Unix is all about power and control.”
My wife is still not convinced having this power and control is necessary or important to how she uses her Mac. But I predict many others will want to get this book.
It is an excellent how-to guide, with 214 pages organized into 10 chapters:
- 1. Why Use Unix?
- 2. Using the Terminal’
- 3. Exploring the File System
- 4. File Management
- 5. Finding Files and Information
- 6. Redirecting I/O
- 7. Multitasking
- 8. Taking Unix Online
- 9. Of Windows and X11
- 10. Where to Go from Here
Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion is well written and nicely illustrated with step-by-step Unix command examples, results displays, screen shots, and tips. It doesn’t try to cover everything, nor get too deep into detail.
Dave Taylor’s new book comfortably meets its goal of showing savvy OS X users how to use “all the basic commands you need to get started with Unix.”
There is, he points out, “a whole world of Unix inside your OS X system, and it’s time for you to jump in and learn how to be more productive and more efficient, and gain remarkable power as a Mac user.”
— Si Dunn
Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion
For more information: paperback – Kindle
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