Reviews (6)

Good intro to Ubuntu the Linux Distro, GREAT intro to community
I received 3 Ubuntu titles and thought it might be useful to compare them.Ubuntu is a fairly recent Linux distribution that strives to be usable out of the box, with strong support.It has deep pockets and a thriving community behind it.I admire a lot of the design choices that went into Ubuntu, such as limiting the use of the all-powerful root account, which can get people into trouble.The bare-bones server install is the cleanest Linux server I've seen - *no* open ports, minimal services.Just enough to log in at a console and then install what you want.On the other hand, if you want a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP - the most popular combination on the internet), that's a one button install!Brilliant!
If Ubuntu sounds good, then this book is for you.
The Official Ubuntu Book, brought to you by a number of folks who actively write or document Ubuntu and is a great book for those looking to move from OSX or Windows to Ubuntu. If you're a novice or intermediate Ubuntu user then this book is for you. If you consider yourself an expert, you can still pick up a few things but most of what you'll find here, you'll already know.
Great Book- so stop apologizing!
This is a great place to start for anyone considering making the move to Ubuntu and open source software. Thr first chapter gives a quick recap of the what exactly "open source" software means including F/OSS, Free Open Source Software, and a bit of background on the Ubuntu project itself.Some might skip that chapter but since that was exactly some of the info I was looking for, it was very helpful. . .except, "stop apolozgizing for writing such a great book!"At least three if not four times in the first chapter, the phrase, "If you've made it this far. . . " or "If you are still reading this. . . " was used.Hey guys, you did a great job, no need to apologize.I mean why else would someone buy this book rather than download it for free? ;-)
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Operating Systems - General    6. Operating Systems - Linux    7. Operating systems (Computers)    8. Ubuntu (Electronic resource)    9. Computers / Operating Systems / Linux    10. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (28)

Dummy No More
This book is well written and well laid out. It can be used as a reference or as a learning tool for those less knowledgeable on computer stuff. I just advanced from Windows 98 and this made the leap/transition much easier and less confounding.

"REAL DUMMIE" BEFORE..WITH THIS BOOK,MAKES A BEGINNER FEEL LESS LIKE A "DUMMIE"
MY FIRST COMPUTER...(DID NOT HELP THAT THE COMPUTER WAS A LEMON, AND THE COMPANY REPLACED IT)I NOT ONLY DID NOT UNDERSTAND "COMPUTER" LANGUAGE, I DID NOT EVEN KNOW HOW TO TURN IT OFF WITH OR WITHOUT POWER-BUTTON.ANY ONE WANTING TO KNOW "HOW TO" SHOULD GET THIS BOOK.LIKE IT SAYS..YOU DON'T SIT AND READ IT LIKE A NOVEL...YOU HAVE A QUESTION...YOU LOOK IT UP IN THE BOOK...NOW IF SOMEONE WOULD COME UP WITH A COMPUTER DICTIONARY FOR ALL THE TERMS ETC. USED IN "COMPUTER LANGUAGE"!!!!BUY THIS...YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

Its not a teaching book.
The book for the most part is having a discussion with you about Windows XP.Offering comments or critiques.It is not a book that I would recommend for learning via book.A Few areas actually go into depth.I see it as a PowerPoint presentation discussion about basics XP and should have been sold as.It lacked detail in networking and wireless needed for many user/owner issues. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer operating systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Microsoft Windows (Computer fi    6. Microsoft Windows (Computer file)    7. Microsoft Windows (Computer so    8. Microsoft Windows (Computer software)    9. Operating Systems - NT    10. Operating Systems - Windows XP    11. Operating systems (Computers)    12. Computer Hardware & Operating Systems    13. Computers / Operating Systems / NT   

Editorial Review

For software development professionals and computer science students, Read more

Reviews (25)

OS Textbook
I found the book complicated but I am not a programmer. The book covers alot of concepts which I found hard to grasp. Overall the book is not bad but if you are looking for something that will teach you programming I would not recommend this book.

Totally Sucked
I'm taking a college course and this book really bites. Reading it just leaves me in a daze. He goes on and on about how this method won't work and that method won't work which completely covers up what we need to learn. I'm getting 98.18% in the class on term 8 of 10, but it's not due to this book. Unfortuneatley I'm stuck with the book because it's what the school uses. Find another one.

Amazing
I have been able to, using just this book, read and learn about operating systems in a very thorough and painless way. The writing is straightforward and really demystifies OSs. I am a college CS student taking an OS course and this has been an invaluable asset. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Operating Systems - General    6. Operating systems (Computers)    7. Computers / Operating Systems / General    8. Operating systems & graphical user interfaces (GUIs)   

Reviews (92)

Good things, bad things...
Good:
Good, but too much fluff...
I've been a Server OS administrator since 1991, starting with Novell 3.12. I started with OS2, Novell and then Windows NT in 1995 at the second largest retailer in the US and I've worked my way through NT 3.5 to 2003. I bought Minasi's NT 4.0 books and thought they were the greatest thing going, but I was still green and the other publishers were not up to speed. Now I own the Windows Server 2003 books Inside Out, Unleashed and Administrators Companion. I have read much of Minasi's 2003 book, but I doubt I'll buy it. I have to say that Minasi's writing style now forces serious administrators to waste a great deal of time wading through the fluff. His book is one of, if not the thickest and it's not because of the technical information. Just like his articles in magazine publications, his writing is oriented towards new or amateur administrators. I think if you have 2 of, or the 3 books I mentioned previously, you can skip Minasi's Server 2003 book. The single area where Mark has an edge over the other books is his discussion of compatibility with older, downlevel or non-MS workstation client OSes such as DOS, Mac, Workstation, etc. This same information was covered in his earlier NT 4.0 and Win2000 books, so if you have any of them, you're ok there.

A response to Joaquin Menchaca from an Apple Certified Tech Coordinator
You know, there are times I despair at the treatment of Macintoshes in Windows-centric books. Obsolete information, badly written explanations of Mac technology, and general "macs can't do that" comments. I'll flip through Windows books at the store and shudder at the nonsense they spread about Macs.
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Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer operating systems    4. Computers    5. Computers - Communications / Networking    6. Internet - General    7. Microcomputer Application Software    8. Microcomputer Operating Environments    9. Microsoft Windows server    10. Operating Systems - General    11. Operating Systems - Windows    12. Operating systems (Computers)    13. Programming - General    14. Computer Communications & Networking    15. Computers / Operating Systems / NT    16. Microsoft Windows   

Reviews (2)

Very good learning version
This affordable version of SPSS allows students to learn how to use SPSS without investing a large amount of money on the full version ($600 or so).This version is limited in the number of variables and cases it can store, so students looking to perform serious analysis would be better off to purchase the SPSS Graduate Pack.

Not for graduate students
Unfortunately I didn't see the part about the student version being limited to 50 variables and 1500 cases until I'd bought it.The class I'm taking uses far more variables than that.I am wiser now.
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Subjects:  1. Mathematics    2. Microcomputer Operating Environments    3. Operating Systems - Windows    4. Probability & Statistics - General    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Statistical Methods In The Social Sciences    8. Statistics    9. Mathematical & statistical software    10. Mathematics / Statistics   

Editorial Review

Aimed at any serious programmer or computer science student,the new second edition of Read more

Reviews (142)

Great reference, Bad textbook
This is actually a very good book to read - what they cover, they cover in depth, building each concept up from elementary concepts so you can always see how they got from point A to point B.The authors present mathematical proofs of essentially every assertion (although, as is typical of "discrete math" proofs, the proofs can sometimes be a tad on the silly side as they sometimes just restate whatever they're trying to prove - blame academia).The algorithms are all presented in a language-agnostic pseudocode which highlights the essentials of the algorithm itself without burdening the reader with language idiosyncracies.Plus, if you want something more concrete, the latest edition comes with a CD-ROM including all the algorithms implemented in Java!
A great reference
This book is not for the casual reader.If the contents seems confusing at times it is because there are hard problems being analyzed.Any book on algorithms that is not confusing at times is probably not discussing any interesting algorithms.While quite academic, this book is also relevant to any engineer who needs to design/optimize a non-trivial algorithm.It's also one of those books that one can open up to any random page and start reading.Sometimes when I get coders-block, this is just the thing to break me out of it.This book is heavy, expensive and well worth its weight and price.

Important Book
This is an excellent book. Well written, easy to understand, precise, good problems, excellent coverage of the basics. This book can provide an excellent foundation in computer science.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer Science    3. Computer algorithms    4. Computer programming    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Programming - Algorithms    8. Algorithms & procedures    9. Computers / Computer Science    10. Mathematical modelling   

Reviews (3)

Absolutely superb
I am a huge ADO.NET nut and David's first book was absolutely priceless. After his last book, he set a very high bar that was going to be hard to meet, yet that's exactly what he did.
Good, but not as good as his former book
I was just a tad bit disappointed because his former book was so helpful to me. Still a lot of users who develop windows form applications use Access, but I see the big push to make everything SQL server. Though I like SQL Server, but in most small apps for what I do it is highly unnecessary.
Accessing a Database from the .NET Environment
This book is intended for people writing data access code in a Microsoft .NET application.ADO (Active Data Object) .NET is a set of libraries within the Microsoft .NET framework that helps you to communicate with various data sources from .NET applications.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - General Information    4. General    5. Microcomputer Application Software    6. Operating Systems - Windows    7. Programming - General    8. Computers / General   

Reviews (6)

The Bridge Between Knowledge and Understanding: Making Solaris Really Sing
"Solaris Internals" and its predecessor "Sun Performance and Tuning" are wonderful books for giving you the knowledge to know whats actually happening under the covers, but many SA's admit struggling when it comes to translating that into usable day-to-dayunderstanding of the systems on which they manage.Just knowing how it works isn't enough to be really useful, what you need is the ability to look at the system and work out how what your seeing fits what you know.
If you run Solaris you need this book!
This book is a standalone companion to the "Solaris Internals" (2nd Ed) book. Where "Solaris Internals" covers the kernel architecture and theory, this is a practitioners guide that independently introduces, describes and provides indepth examples of Solaris performance monitoring, tracing and debugging tools, including mdb & dtrace.
Every Solaris UNIX admin should get this book !
Every Solaris UNIX admin and developer should have a copy of the "Solaris Performance and Tools". It is a must. A unique book out there which does talk in detail about: observability and debugging in Solaris.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. Operating Systems - General    5. Operating systems (Computers)    6. Solaris (Computer file)    7. Computer Software Packages    8. Computers / Operating Systems / General   

Reviews (7)

A Must Have
I have seen some reviews that said this can't be used to learn Photoshop from the ground up, but that is untrue, because I used this book to teach myself Photoshop with absolutely no prior knowledge whatsoever, and it does a wonderful job of explaining everything. It pretty much covers everything, and I consider it a must have. The only reason it may not be for someone is if they don't learn well from just reading; that, I admit, is a downside of this book. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand what they are talking about by just reading the instructions. If you are sitting by the computer though, it's very easy to follow step by step. If you choose to buy a book with lessons, such as classroom in a book, then I definitely recommend this book as a follow-up.

A Really Great Book!!!
I'm a member of an online gaming community and I was wanting to learn how to make my own "Sigs". After a few hours of reading I was able to use layers to make my first kool looking sig. I also was able to use Photoshop for all the graphics on my web site. If you want to learn to use Photoshop, then this book is a MUST have...

The Manual that Should Have Been.
This is the book that should ship with Photoshop CS2. Excellent. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. Desktop Publishing    9. Desktop Publishing - General    10. Microcomputer Graphics    11. Operating Systems - Macintosh    12. Operating Systems - Windows    13. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    14. Photoshop   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (3)

Rally is Best Server 2003 Book!
Susan Snedaker has written an excellent text covering almost everything you'll need to know to get and keep your Windows Server 2003 Enterprise up and running. Its called the 'Best Damn Book Period' and after reading some of the others written on the subject, I agree it is the best--especially for the non-MCSE user.
Best written, most useful book so far
If you are planning to implement a network system based on Windows Server 2003 you will find everything you need in the pages of this book. It covers every topic you need to know to successfully create a secure and efficient Windows server (or at least as secure and efficient as a Windows server can be). The author does assume some basic knowledge of networking and so leaves out a lot of the basics, which is entirely appropriate in a book of this nature. The focus is on the Windows Server 2003 operating system and not on things like using IP addresses to subnet a network.
Truly the Best Damn Windows Server 2003 Book Period
From the author: If you're involved in managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 network, you need this book. You don't have time to waste reading through arcane tidbits of interesting but useless information. You certainly don't have time to waste reading a book that's been morphed from other versions of Windows. You need something built from the ground up that addresses exactly what you need to know about Windows Server 2003. Period. Read more

Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - Windows    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Communications / Networking    5. Operating Systems - Windows    6. Computers / Client-Server Computing    7. Computers / Communications / Networking    8. Computers / Networking / General    9. Microsoft Windows   

Reviews (2)

This is the 70-526 Training Kit
The 70-526 Training Kit is now available, but there are still reviews on this site for another book (the 70-536 Training Kit). Please be aware that this is a new title and has not yet been reviewed.

Amazon, please fix your problems!
This book is great! Unfortunately, the 'spotlight review' that is featured above, DOES NOT BELONG TO THIS BOOK! It belongs to the training kit for 70-536. For some reason, Amazon can't seem to get rid of this erroneous review. Please, please, please, fix this problem! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Certification Guides - General    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Database Management - General    6. General    7. Programming - Software Development    8. Relational Databases    9. Software Design    10. Computers / General    11. Computing and Information Technology    12. Microsoft Windows   

Reviews (1)

a comprehensive widget set for C++
When C++ was first put together in the 80s, it was just before the advent of GUIs for many programs. But as Java arose in the 90s, and then C#, the need for easy UI coding in C++ became very clear. Hence Qt was developed. Now in its 4th version. And available for Microsoft Windows, linux, Macintosh and several unixes. The accompanying CD has version 4.1.1. Though by the time you get this book, you might want to scout the Web, either for patches to this version, or a more recent version.
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Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language)    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Computers - Operating Systems    6. Graphical user interfaces (Computer systems)    7. Operating Systems - Linux    8. Operating Systems - UNIX    9. Programming - General    10. Programming - Software Development    11. Programming Languages - C++    12. User Interfaces    13. C & Visual C    14. Computers / Operating Systems / Linux   

Reviews (36)

Good Reference, Worthy Sequel For More Advanced Topics
Describing more advanced topics of c++, such as - things you should know before overloading special operators, inner works of exception-handling (and what you should avoid while using them), how the virtual table is built when using RTTI & Inheritance, general efficiency issues (such as the works of temporaries and multiple inheritance) and few Design-Patterns related techniques.
A good supplementary reference
It provides even more explanation than the first book and they both have similar advantages: easy-readable, explained in detail, large and useful topics covered.

use the STL and string objects
Scott Meyers continues in the vein of his earlier successful "Effective C++". If you benefited from the insight presented in that book, you may well want to follow up with a study of this text. It assumes a general familiarity with C++, though not necessarily with all the obscure details. It continues in the style of the earlier book by collating useful advice garnered from the C++ community. Which is probably one of the largest groups of programmers in the world.
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Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. C++ (Computer program language    3. C++ (Computer program language)    4. Computer Books: Operating Systems    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming Languages - C++    7. C & Visual C    8. Computers / Programming Languages / C++   

Reviews (17)

Excellent all around
This is the first Mac programming book that has been released since OS X's debut that is actually worth buying. It is such an amazingly detailed tour of everything that makes the OS tick that I am honestly amazed by the thought of one person writing the entire thing. It's not going to put on a stupid looking cowboy hat and teach you Objective-C or hold your hand through building your first Cocoa project, but it will show you how to actually do something interesting once you progress beyond re-inventing the text editor and to-do list.

An awesome comprehensive programmer's pal
This is a great book.It covers device access, iokit, debuggers, compile flags, processor info, efi/bootx and nvram settings, universal/fat binaries, heritage of Darwin and the mach role, memory management and threading, and more.It's thicker then the bible, but none of it is fluff.Well written easy to follow, and has tons of good examples.

A remarkable achievement
Amit Singh's Mac OS X Internals book is, for all intents and purposes, a flawless treatment of the subject matter. The breadth of coverage crosses all major kernel subsystems(processes/threads, virtual memory, etc), extentions, a history of Mac OS X, programming/developement environments, hardware architecture (including PPC details) and system firmware. I can't think of anything that Mr. Singh did not cover.
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Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Programming    2. Computer - Apple/Macintosh    3. Computer Books: Operating Systems    4. Computers    5. Macintosh (Computer)    6. Operating Systems - Macintosh    7. Operating systems (Computers)    8. Programming    9. Computers / Operating Systems / Macintosh    10. Macintosh OS   

Reviews (11)

What it covers it covers well
This book is outstanding for what it covers. It's a great reference for some core topics, as well as for techniques most programmers may never use, but just might. If you ever happen to need to use reflection or multithreading, for example, look no further than this book for a thorough explanation.
Delivers on its Promise
Why is this is an excellent book?
The best programming book
This is definitely the best programming book I've ever read. If you want to understand how things work behind the scenes, this is the perfect guide. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Microsoft Visual BASIC    5. Microsoft Visual BASIC (Computer software)    6. Operating Systems - Windows    7. Programming - Visual Basic - VBA (Visual Basic for Applicati    8. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    9. Computers / General