New UNIX users have a hard job. Cosseted by GUIs and WYSIWYG word processors, learning UNIX can feel like a step back to the Stone Age. New users would appreciate any help in the right direction. This book takes a HP-centric view to UNIX. It is aimed at high power computer users who may possibly use a workstation in a scientific, engineering or design environment.

The book gives quite an unusually broad overview of HP-UX installations including typical hardware configurations, networking, System's Administration, Visual User Environment (which is HP's Xwindows desktop) and programming with HP's Softbench. It takes a tutorial approach to learning the common UNIX commands, Bourne shell programming and even includes the ubiquitous chapter on vi.

Overall I found the book interesting although I felt that at the cost of so wide a coverage of HP's products, the author did not cover some of the subjects in much depth. A shame as at 315 pages, I would not consider it a big book for the cost. Complete beginners would find the book heavy going.

I must stress that a number of books of this nature exist not necessarily better but some are cheaper. However, new HP users would undoubtedly appreciate the coverage given toward HP specific issues.