It's about time: Mac OS X for Unix Geeks arrives on the scene none too soon for UNIX
aficionados who, having heard that the latest editions of Mac OS are based on a UNIX
variant, want to see how the platform compares to more venerable versions of
the eminently configurable operating system. This book highlights some key differences
between the Darwin environment and more conventional UNIXs, enabling people with UNIX
experience to take advantage of it as they learn the Mac OS X way of doing things at
the command line.

This skinny volume neither aims to teach its readers UNIX nor introduce them to
the Mac, but rather to show how Apple has implemented UNIX. It's a fast read that
assumes--as the title implies--rather a lot of UNIX knowledge. With that requirement
satisfied and this book in hand, you're likely to discover aspects of Aqua more
quickly than you otherwise would have.

The authors spend lots of time explaining how administrative tasks--such as managing
groups, users, and passwords--are handled in the Mac OS environment. They document
netinfo fully, and call attention to its limitations (like its inability to create
home directories for users) by explaining how to do the job on the command line.
They also cover C programming in the Darwin universe at greater length than any other
book does, providing explicit instructions for such important tasks as creating header
files and linking static libraries. A guide to the command line (they call the reference
section--groan--"The Missing Manpages") provides good value at this book's
conclusion. --David Wall

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