Mac Training for the Non-Dummy

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I am a Network Technician with over 10 years experience. I have my degree in PC Support and a number of Microsoft classes under my belt. I am A+ and Network+ certified.

In those 10+ years I maybe have 1 hour combined of Mac experience. I am not against Macs, I just have never had a job where that knowledge was needed. At home I have always run what I used at work, I just saw it as more training.

Now I find myself needing to know a little about Macs. I just bought a cheap Mac from eBay for home and plan to load OS X on it. I was thinking of getting "Mac for Dummies" or another beginner book but the books I looked at seem below me. I know what a folder is, I want to know how the Mac handles the security of the folders. I also want to know a little more of the behind the scenes stuff. Teach me where the mail settings are, not how to write an e-mail.

I don't want to spend the money to go to class. Can anyone recommend a book or inexpensive online training that might help me go from being a PC guru to at least not totally lost in Mac land?

Thanks!
 
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Many people will recommend David Pogues "OS X: The Missing Manual".

I would also point out that while you may have years of experience with Windows, and have several degrees/certifications with Windows and Microsoft.... they amount to absolutely squat in the Mac world. :black:
I am not trying to be pretenteous, I am simply stating fact. You will need to forget all you know about Windows while you are learning and using your Mac. Don't compare how something is done in Windows to how you plan on acheiving something with Mac OS X. Don't start thinking or stating things like, "in Windows all I did was '______' and I got the result of '______', so how do I do this in Mac?" Or something like "in Windows I used a program called '______' that allowed me to do '______'. " Basically forget all about what you did or what you used in Windows. Don't even think about it or bring it up as it won't offer any help or understanding to the Mac OS. Start fresh as if you know absolutely nothing about computers, then you will learn the ins and outs of Mac OS X much faster.
 
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I agree with getting the Missing Manual. Like you, I'm also quite versed in the Windows world, so I needed a slightly more technical book. That's exactly what I found in the Missing Manual. It's pretty hefty, so you know you're getting your money's worth with a ton of useful information. Some of it is basic, but there is a lot of intermediate and advanced stuff in there.

However, don't expect it to go into the type of details an A+ certification book would. Though for somebody with only 1 hour of total Mac use, it's definitely worth more than it costs.

If anything, it serves as a great reference guide. I haven't read through the entire thing, but whenever I'm stumped, I just pull it out, find what I'm looking for in the index, and a few minutes later, I'm slapping myself on the forehead for not having figured out something so simple on my own :black:
 
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Techpriest,

Check out the O'Reilly books at www.ora.com. While a few of their titles are wanting, most of them are excellent. They have some of the best books in the Unix world, and they have some very good titles for OS X. In addition to the "Missing Manual", you might find "Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks" to be useful.

At an admin level, "Running Mac OS X Tiger" might even be better, based on the description of the book.

Ha! I've only had my MacBook for 4 days. However, I'm a hardcore Unix/Linux geek with advanced user level experience in Windows (3.1 thru XP Pro). D3v1L80Y makes lots of sense regarding the great differences between Windows and OS X, and you'll also find that there's also a vast difference between Unix/Linux and OS X. Knowlege and experience on the *Nix side is helpful, but not enough. Think in OS X to the extent you can.

Two items for you: GIYF; and SafariBooksOnline.

GIYF or Google Is Your Friend. If you're running into a problem, just Google it. You're not the first to experience it. If you don't find an answer to your inquiry, you're probably not using the right search words.

SafariBooksOnline. If your company subscribes to SafariBooksOnline (www.safaribooksonline.com), you've got access to a most excellent resource for OS X as well as all other *Nix and even Windows. If they don't, then ask if they will. My company has a subscription with them, and employees can each get access to up to 10 books each month. I'm able to read them with Firefox under OS X, Linux, and Windows. These are complete and current versions of the books from O'Reilly and others.

Btw, I have no financial interest in either O'Reilly or SafariBooksOnline.

Hope this helps!
 
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I'de recommend the Missing Manual series also. Great books, and they are very helpful for any new user.
 

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I am a Network Technician with over 10 years experience. I have my degree in PC Support and a number of Microsoft classes under my belt. I am A+ and Network+ certified.

In those 10+ years I maybe have 1 hour combined of Mac experience. I am not against Macs, I just have never had a job where that knowledge was needed. At home I have always run what I used at work, I just saw it as more training.

Now I find myself needing to know a little about Macs. I just bought a cheap Mac from eBay for home and plan to load OS X on it. I was thinking of getting "Mac for Dummies" or another beginner book but the books I looked at seem below me. I know what a folder is, I want to know how the Mac handles the security of the folders. I also want to know a little more of the behind the scenes stuff. Teach me where the mail settings are, not how to write an e-mail.

I don't want to spend the money to go to class. Can anyone recommend a book or inexpensive online training that might help me go from being a PC guru to at least not totally lost in Mac land?

Thanks!

To start with, I'd suggest you spend some time learning Linux since OS X is based on BSD which is a *NIX variant. Coming from the world of Windows support, you'll find just navigating the Terminal to be a great departure from the Command Prompt in Windows (I too am a network admin with an A+, N+ and an MCSE). Once you understand what makes a Linux machine tick, you'll have a better foundation from which to understand the inner workings of OS X and troubleshoot it. I say this because Linux is a lot more accessible to PC users and there are a ton of resources out there for people wishing to learn the nuts and bolts of Linux (more so than with the Mac). Also, since you work in IT, you're more likely to come face to face with Linux in its many forms than Mac and a good understanding of *NIX is essential in the IT job market.

Understanding *NIX variants will get you started in understanding the fundamentals of Mac. If you open the Terminal on your Mac and look at the folder structure from the root, you'll see what I mean.

Aside from that, if you want to just jump right in to the guts of the Mac, check out Amit Singh's "Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach".

While the Missing Manual is an excellent book for the casual user, it's not going to give you the fundamentals you'll need to troubleshoot and support Macs.
 
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Thanks, that book sounds like what I want.

Looking at Amazon I also found "Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition" also by David Pogue. Any comments on that?

While I am reminded every time I sit down at a Mac that my Win experience is not much help getting things done, it does mean that I am not a novice in the world of computers. A book or class designed to take someone that knows nothing and lead them to the level of a competent user will start out far from where I need to be, and fall short of where I want to go. Looking at the Dummies books I see a section under the printers called, "Running Out Of Paper" (p 128) but it does not seem to cover connecting a Mac to a TCP-IP printer at all.

The Safari Books looks interesting. I see they offer a free trial, I will have to give them a try.
 

cwa107


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Thanks, that book sounds like what I want.

Looking at Amazon I also found "Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition" also by David Pogue. Any comments on that?

See my post above.

SNIP

Looking at the Dummies books I see a section under the printers called, "Running Out Of Paper" (p 128) but it does not seem to cover connecting a Mac to a TCP-IP printer at all.

This is a good example of why I say look into learning Linux first. On a Mac, you'll connect to a networked printer using LPR/LPD which is a very common protocol in the *NIX world.
 
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There are two different books, "Mac OS X Tiger: Missing Manual" and "Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition". Any comments on one vs the other?

Reading the reviews at Amazon I think I might start with "Switching". It supposedly has a nice PC to Mac translator in it.

Thanks for all the advice so far. I will get a book on order and wait for my funky looking Mac to show up.
 
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would also point out that while you may have years of experience with Windows, and have several degrees/certifications with Windows and Microsoft.... they amount to absolutely squat in the Mac world. :black:
I


Yeah he's got Network+, thats TOTALLY useless in Unix. its not like MacOS uses TCP/IP or anything. :p


Think of OS X as a Hippy version of linux, or as my buddy calls it "unix for the masses". if you know linux the transition is alot easier.

</a+ certified>
</Net+ certified>
</working on; CCNA/MCP/MCSE>
 
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There are two different books, "Mac OS X Tiger: Missing Manual" and "Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition". Any comments on one vs the other?

Reading the reviews at Amazon I think I might start with "Switching". It supposedly has a nice PC to Mac translator in it.

Thanks for all the advice so far. I will get a book on order and wait for my funky looking Mac to show up.

I personally ordered the first one and it's been a great source of help. I took a look at the second one at the Apple store and found that either a lot of that information is covered in the first one or you can just as easily find that sort of information with a quick search on these forums.

I'm not disagreeing with cwa107 about getting more technical books, but since you ARE just starting out, I would suggest getting the Missing Manual, getting a better grip on Mac OS X, and THEN start digging into the nitty gritty, if that's what you're after. No point in learning how the foundation works if you can't figure out the easy stuff on top :bomb:
 

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