Cheap Inside Mac OS X: Panther DVD-Rom (Software) (Macintosh) Price

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Customer Reviews of Inside Mac OS X: Panther DVD-Rom

A good introduction to OS X
Pros: A very thorough introduction to Panther OS X for novice Mac users such as recent converts from Windows PC's. <
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>Cons: No index that would permit navigation to specific topics within a given lecture. <
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>Target audience: Dave Marcus, the lecturer, says this DVD training video is for novice and intermediate users. In fact, novice users should know something about computers or should be recent converts from the PC world. Intermediate Mac are presumed to be OS 9 users, but could also be folks who have learned some things on their own. These users will learn a lot from this DVD, but also will have to sit through quite a bit of familiar material to do so. <
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>Method: You listen to Marcus and watch his screen as he does things on his Mac. You can select chapters and subsections, but there is no index. Unlike a book, you cannot easily skim over what you know while looking for something unfamiliar to you except by moving the slider that gives the progress on the video. This in my opinion is not an efficient way to skim. <
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>The major sections are <
>I. Workflow and System Set-Up <
>II. Panther Applications <
>III. Internet and Networking <
>IV. Optimization and Troubleshooting <
>V. Conclusion <
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>Each of the major sections is divided into subsections that last 5-15 minutes. These relatively brief lectures allow you to watch the DVD in short time intervals rather than having to watch an hour or so per viewing. <
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>The major applications covered include everything found in the default doc installed by Apple on the standard Macintosh. Most of the applications are explored in exhausting detail, covering each and every button on the GUI. The sole exceptions are the iLife applications of which only iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie are reviewed briefly. The reason for this is that iLife could be a DVD video all by itself (it is not offered by Digital Media). Most of the time, the depth of the presentation seemed to be appropriate for a novice mac user. The one exception was Expose, which I think could have been done in half the time. Probably the most interesting application be presented was Sherlock, which I probably never would have explored had I not seen his lecture. <
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>Some things that were not covered, but should have been in my opinion include the following. <
> Software installation: it may be obvious for experienced users but may be perplexing for novices, especially when downloading applications from the web. <
> I would like to have seen some introductory remarks about color management, especially since this is one of the major reasons people move from the PC to the Mac. <
> No mention was made of the text editor. Few new users will expect the "end" key on the keyboard to take them to the end of the file as opposed to the end of the line. They are not likely to guess that Control-a and Control-e are the means of quickly moving to the beginning or end of a line. <
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>Although this review may sound more negative than positive, I believe that this DVD would work well for most novice Panther OS X users, particularly new converts to the Mac OS such as myself. It's an easy way to learn the about the OS. However, I recommend that you also purchase a book as a reference for subsequent review of specific items. Intermediate users may find learning from a book to be more efficient than this DVD.