Rating: 
Summary: The best of its kind
Review: Unix in a Nutshell continues to be the best overall reference book on the Unix operating system. Organized so that all commands and options are easily found and understood, it is an indispensable tool for those who work in a Unix environment. But it is not just a guide to Unix commands and their options, it also contains a mass of useful information about the Unix Shell, shell scripting, text editing and formatting, and much more. Truely one of the most useful computer reference books I have ever purchased, and for the money it is the best bargain you will find in the Unix field. I highly recommend it for all those who work with (or are interested in) Unix and want just about all the information they could need in one neat package. A great buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great book from O'Reilly
Review: What can I say, their books are great. I've always found them to be the best out there.Although this is a reference, not a how-to, I had no problems with it as a beginner. With only this book and "Unix is a four letter word", I have had no trouble passing my unix class at school. Thats a heck of alot more than I can say for most reference books.
Rating:
Summary: A concise, though brief, quick reference for your desktop
Review: While this book - as stated in its title - serves its designated purpose as a "Quick Reference" pretty well, be well aware of its limitations. If you're not yet familiar with UNIX, make sure to work your way through one of the better introductions to UNIX. My personal favorite is Steven R. Levine's "UNIX for Dummies; despite the somewhat derogatory title of this books series (or maybe because of it), it is an easy read, and provides the UNIX newbie with a solid understanding of the overall concepts of UNIX, as well as the use of the most common commands. Don't expect too much from "UNIX in a Nutshell". While it comes in handy whenever short term memory proves insufficient to recall certain command options and the likes, this reference only provides a terse abstract for each command. Even though these abstracts in most cases are a little bit more elaborate than the "usage" section of the man pages, you will still have to check the man pages if you need a more elaborate explanation of the command or its options. On the other hand, this reference will always be handy when you're working on a system that does not have man pages installed, as well as for quickly looking up other information. Although this book does not, can not, and does not claim to be a "complete" quick reference, it deserves a place on most system adminstrator's, system programmer's and advanced user's desk.
Rating:
Summary: A concise, though brief, quick reference for your desktop
Review: While this book - as stated in its title - serves its designated purpose as a "Quick Reference" pretty well, be well aware of its limitations. If you're not yet familiar with UNIX, make sure to work your way through one of the better introductions to UNIX. My personal favorite is Steven R. Levine's "UNIX for Dummies; despite the somewhat derogatory title of this books series (or maybe because of it), it is an easy read, and provides the UNIX newbie with a solid understanding of the overall concepts of UNIX, as well as the use of the most common commands. Don't expect too much from "UNIX in a Nutshell". While it comes in handy whenever short term memory proves insufficient to recall certain command options and the likes, this reference only provides a terse abstract for each command. Even though these abstracts in most cases are a little bit more elaborate than the "usage" section of the man pages, you will still have to check the man pages if you need a more elaborate explanation of the command or its options. On the other hand, this reference will always be handy when you're working on a system that does not have man pages installed, as well as for quickly looking up other information. Although this book does not, can not, and does not claim to be a "complete" quick reference, it deserves a place on most system adminstrator's, system programmer's and advanced user's desk.
Rating:
Summary: Everything you wanted to know about UNIX
Review: Yes this book covers just about everything you could want to know about the UNIX os, what every command does and how to use it. The only thing that I would caution potential buyers of this book about is that it should be regarded as a reference only! The title is a little deceiving, this is not really for the begginer or someone who wants to be taught how to use the UNIX maze of commands. It does not provide detailed instructions, only samples. Great resource though!
Rating:
Summary: Concise <quick> reference for Unix basics
Review: You have a general section on shells and then seperate sections for Bourne|Korn and another one for the C shell. There are seperate sections on pattern matching, the Emacs editor, Vi (an invaluable resource in and of itself), Ex editor, Sed editor, and Awk (scripting language). Then there's a text formatting section containing information on Nroff, Troff, macros, and preprocessors. Then for developers there are sections on SCCS, make, debugging, and RCS. And perhaps most importantly there is a fairly exhaustive section on Unix commands and switches. So this one handy dandy reference covers most of the major aspects that developers and dba's need. This is not the guide for system administrators but for the rest of us this one reference fills most of the bill. I have two copies. One I keep at the office and the other stays at home with me. Now i'm not gonna say that it's the end all and be all of unix but as a quick reference it's indispensible. Buy it.
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