Snow Leopard Super Reference Showdown

One of the original ideas of the site was to have head to head book reviews. They’re not common in traditional outlets, probably for a couple of reasons. One, there has to be a winner and a loser (or degrees of each) and that’s not going to make some people happy.  Second, it’s a decent amount of work. It would be much easier to reprint a press release with features and bullets – believe me!

Despite these obstacles, we’re going for it here at Techshelf… We bring to you the first ever tech book, Thunderdome-style review!

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible
vs
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Missing Manual

Dollar for dollar and pound for pound, books are the cheapest training tool around. Over the past few years, the majority of my clients have migrated to the Mac and I always recommended that they pick up a reference book, read it over a weekend, and save time, money, and frustration in the long run.

Anyone new to Macs, new to computers, or switching to a Mac should have a killer reference. Sure you can Google any trouble, but if you don’t even know something is an option (or trouble), it’s never going to blip up on your mental screen. A good reference can be a shortcut to a strong Mac user foundation (even though there’s nothing short about these books).

So let’s see which behemoth is the best in show. This fight will be three rounds…

• Round One: The Flip Test
• Round Two: Content & Organization
• Round Three: Extras

Let’s get it on!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROUND ONE: THE FLIP TEST

When scanning titles in the local bookstore (remember those?), readers have a common system. Check the title, pick up the book, then flip through at a rate where no real content could be sinking in. Generally checking out the goods: the quality of paper, fonts, images, color inserts, layout, index, and an info scan. So let’s flip:

Page color/paper quality:

• The Missing Manual is on whiter paper which ends up feeling higher quality

Images and graphics:

• Chapter graphics on the Bible have a dated look. This could be intentional since it is a ‘bible.’
• Screenhots in the Bible are clear, left justified.
• Each screenshot in the Missing Manual looks it was photoshopped with a drop shadow, and then centered with a defined figure title or tip. Really nice (Mac-like?).

Bible Screen shot

Missing Manual screen shot

Info scan:

• The Missing Manual has really useful tags in the margins of every page. They aren’t just restating the chapter title, but they are consistent with the content of each page you flip through. That’s gotta take some time to create but very handy when trying to retrieve something fast (no Google search in these 800+ pages).
• Both books label Snow Leopard’s new features with call outs. The Bible sticks with “NEW FEATURES” while the Missing Manual goes with “SNOW LEOPARD SPOTS”.

Missing Manual margin tags.

Winner: Mac OS X The Missing Manual

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROUND TWO: CONTENT & ORGANIZATION

The number of authors on a book can play into how cohesive it will read, the repetition of content, and general flow. I prefer a single author, but I think up to 3 is workable. Either way, it’s not a qualifier and there are always exceptions.

The OS X Bible has two authors, Galen Gruman and Mark Hattersely. There’s a third contributor too, Timothy R. Butler. He soloed on the last chapter which covers UNIX. The coverage & writing is very clear and straight forward: Here’s a feature and here’s how it works. Item by item, they work their way all over the operating system.

The OS X Missing Manual has one author, David Pogue. The writing style here is friendly, fun, and a little jokey. Almost like having a friend or a very good (aka expensive) technology coach explain something to you. While the Bible gives the straight features, the Missing Manual indeed explains the features but maybe more importantly focuses on how they are applied.

Regarding the overall feel and tone, the best example I could find is the way the email chapter is handled. The Bible calls this section, “Collaborating and Communicating“, and the Missing Manual calls it “Mail and Address Book“. Sure, they both make sense but one just might be trying a little to hard to sound authoritative and intimidating (hey – who’s wants to leverage their synergies?!). For me it’s clear which instructor I’d rather have show me the way of the Mac (that would be the Missing Manual if you missed it).

Collaborating and Communicating vs Mail & Address Book

Another difference is the Missing Manual is more hands on. It makes you want to have your machine in front of you to try stuff out as you read along. The Bible is more of an in depth feature tour. The Missing Manual keeps readers engaged in the process while the Bible gives you all the info you need, then you can figure out how to apply it later.

Notes on Organization:

The Bible starts with “How to Install Snow Leopard” and ends with a chapter on UNIX commands, which is logical. However, in between things get that “not so fresh” feeling. It’s like the authors and editor said, “here’s the old edition, let’s just update it even though things weren’t exactly how we wanted them. We’ll get it out quick, be first to market, and grab the quick cash.” For example, there’s a staggering amount of information on Universal Access and a whole chapter on Services, but no mention of iLife. Yeah, iLife isn’t part of Snow Leopard, but there was definitely room for an overview if it would have been edited for the reader rather than for speed or hitting a page count to inflate the spine.

Some areas where the Missing Manual really comes through for the reader:

• Flow, tone, and presentation of the chapters
• Complete and super useful appendix on Mac Keystrokes (this really should come with a new Mac)
• Troubleshooting info all in one area
• An index that seems remarkably human (you can’t Google through a book so you gotta rely on the index)

Don’t get me wrong. The Bible isn’t a hopeless bomb. It does have superior coverage of the new MS Exchange features. Plus its Chapter 24 on Utilities covers 3rd party utilities. A great idea because these apps are what make Macs wonderful, but unfortunately the coverage is light. This would be great if one of the authors would put together a website where the authors could share a utility or 3 each week. But, more on websites in the third round.

Round Two Winner: Mac OS X The Missing Manual

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROUND THREE: EXTRAS

Let’s look online. The first thing I did was look at the publishers’ sites to see what was available on their sites. The Bible has a catalog page with no support material. So I Googled the authors. For Galen Gruman I found him at zangogroup.com (http://www.zangogroup.com/galen.html) – but nothing about the book. For Mark Hattersely, I found him at MacWorld UK (http://www.macworld.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=2) and on Twitter (http://twitter.com/markhattersley). Nothing about the book. For contributor Timothy R. Butler, I think I found his blog but not sure (http://timothybutler.us/). There were technology posts and religious posts – nothing book specific. I think it’s the right guy?

For the Missing Manual, I followed the link on back cover for the Missing CD, http://missingmanuals.com. I popped “Snow Leopard” in the search bar and was taken to the book’s catalog page. There’s where I found information on the missing CD. In addition to live links to sites mentioned in the book, you’ll get downloadable chapters of content that wouldn’t fit in the book, including:

• Mobile Me Backup
• A Crash Course in iLife
• Enabling the Root Account
• Access Control Lists

Plus, there’s complete errata covering everything from typos to content mistakes, as well as a free 45 day trial of the online book. We didn’t sign up for that since it’s only 45 days, and we’re covering the print book here. Worth mentioning though.

Additionally, the author, David Pogue (http://davidpogue.com), has a weekly column at the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology) as well as a technology blog there (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com). You can also reach him through his personal website, or via Twitter (http://twitter.com/pogue). He’s online, accessible and responsive. In fact, I sent him an email as a test (not mentioning I was reviewing the book) and he responded almost immediately.  A pretty nice unwritten feature.

The Bible delivers the minimum and the Missing Manual goes the extra mile with support and downloads.  For both, it would be cool to have a weekly blog where you could pick up something new that the author discovered or couldn’t fit in the book.

Round Three Winner: Mac OS X The Missing Manual

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Conclusion:

Some ‘inside baseball’ stuff: The “Bible” shipped on 9/8/09, while the Missing Manual landed on 10/15/09. That’s a big deal in the tech book publishing world – “first to market”. It’s a big deal in any business. The bad side with books is, if your product is kinda lackluster compared to a book that ships a few weeks later, you can’t make a quick software change and hit publish. The books are out there. Stagnant.

It does look like the Bible did take shortcuts on the content side (see round two) in order to be first, and that pretty much cost them this review.

But hey, what about the Amazon Rankings: The Bible has 5 stars and the MM has 4 stars!?

Ignore the stars. The Missing Manual is the book to buy right now. The Bible has a lot of work to do. I think the coverage is kinda there but it needs torn apart, organized, updated, and to find a personality. Some opportunities might include an iLife Overview, an online component covering third party utilities, and a Google-specific chapter (integrating Google services with your Mac – neat idea, right?), and at least a decent support website.

Summed up: the Missing Manual has stronger content, it’s written better, has superior production quality and has significant online support. Plus, it’s $5 cheaper. You can’t miss with the OS X Missing Manual. If you know someone getting a new Mac this holiday season, do them a favor and hook them up with a copy.  My copy is going straight to my sister (she just picked up her first Apple computer – a 21″ iMac).

We have our Techshelf Thunderdome champion!

Book info:

Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual

• $34.99 (less on Amazon)
• ISBN: 0596153287
• O’Reilly

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible

• $39.99 (less on Amazon)
• ISBN: 047045363X
• John Wiley & Sons

DISCLOSURE: Wiley's publicity group provided Techshelf with a review copy
of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible.  Thanks for that!  Also, I build websites
so I'm probably partial to books with a good supplement site.