How to Use This Book

You should be able to jump into this book wherever you wish. Reading straight through from front to back, however, will ensure that you won't encounter any surprises, as every effort has been made to avoid forward references. If at any time you need to dig deep and find out why something isn't working as you expect, read Chapter 12.

There are a zillion things I'd love to show you about how your Mac operates under the hood. Due to the desire to both get this book into your hands before the end of this century as well as to allow you to carry it next to your PowerBook in your backpack, I'm going to cover the most salient and interesting aspects of each subject and, where appropriate, point you to additional sources of information.

Don't be shy about dog-earing the pages as well as highlighting parts of the book that you find useful. Computer books should not be treated as pristine coffee table books. They should be used. And, it won't be long before Apple releases a new version of Mac OS X, which will prompt a revision of this book that you'll surely want to buy. So go ahead, scribble notes in the margins!