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Unix Power Tools by Jerry Peek & Tim O'Reilly & Mike Loukides Recommended

ISBN: 0-553-35402-7       Publisher: O'Reilly       Pages: 1119pp+CD       Price: £49-99

Categories:   unix

Reviewed by Francis Glassborow in C Vu 5-4 (May 1993)

I did not get this book from Addison Wesley who distribute O'Reilly & Associates books in the UK nor did I get it from Bantam in the UK. Neither of those publishers told me the book was around. Appropriately I learnt of the book via email from Adrian Wontroba who had noticed some information about it on a newsgroup that he takes. This meant that I could contact the source (one of the authors) in the States. He was delighted to get a review copy sent to me. The appropriateness is because much of the book comes from articles etc. that first saw the light of day on usenet.

The book's price includes a CDROM of all relevant software in source code and compiled for the most common Unix platforms. (If you don't have a CDROM drive its getting to be time that you installed one, not just for this book but for the rapidly growing number of items that are becoming available on this medium.) My only regret is that they did not include the text of the book on the CDROM.

The book is a loosely structured collection of information relating to Unix and its tools. If Unix is something you are exploring this is certainly a book that should be on your shopping list. A little expensive if you cannot use the CDROM and the floppy disk or tape copies are an extra $40.

If you are one of those people who just want a simple set of instructions and you are not interested in discovering anything more than the minimum this book is not for you. But if you are an adventurer always curious to learn something new this will prove to be a valuable addition to your baggage.

O'Reilly
Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition by Mike Loukides & Tim O'Reilly & J Peek [Recommended]  (Reviewed Mar 1998)
Windows 95 in a Nutshell by Troy Mott & Tim O'Reilly [Recommended]  (Reviewed Sep 1998)
Windows 95 in a Nutshell by Troy Mott & Tim O'Reilly [Highly Recommended]  (Reviewed Nov 1998)
Windows 98 in a Nutshell by Tim O'Reilly [Highly Recommended]  (Reviewed Feb 2001)

Peek
Learning The Unix Operating System by Jerry Peek [Not Recommended]  (Reviewed May 1998)
Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition by Mike Loukides & Tim O'Reilly & J Peek [Recommended]  (Reviewed Mar 1998)
Using email Effectively by Linda Lamb & Jerry Peek [Recommended]  (Reviewed Jan 1996)