I have had the book for over 5 years, i still refer to it now and again, i am a developer and have found that I was not leveraging the full potential for the operating system, however this book puts me back on track. I have had 3 years of unix exp. before buying the book most of the elementary thing i didn't need and other stuff was not appealing at first, I expected more, but there is more just that i didn't know until I had more commercial experience.

This book is one of those legendary tomes. Just about every Unix Sysadmin I know has a copy of this sitting alongside books like Evi Nemeth's "Unix Sys Admin Handbook". OK so it has a lot of information that isn't new to most sysadmins, but that's not where the beauty of the book lies. The real treasure is found in the countless nuggets of Unix info that have been long since forgotten, or yet to be learned.

In my humble opinion, a true Unix Classic! If like me, you earn a living from Unix, then think of this book as a carpenter would his set of chisels. You don't use them for every job, but when needed, can prove invaluable.

I decided to buy Unix Power Tools after reading all the reviews that seemed to suggest that i cannot live without Unix Power Tools.

But i feel O'reilly let me down with this one. Unix Power Tools is not up to the usual high standard of O'reilly books.

The main problem i have with this book is the price. I have much better books on Unix for less than half the price of Unix Power Tools. The title seems to suggest that this book will unleash the power of Unix, but i realy feel that this is manual for beginers.

I am sure that i would have apreciated this book more if i had bought it 2 years ago when i started learning unix, but after playing with unix for 2 years and working in system administration, i feel this book should be re-named 'Unix Tools For Beginners'.

Normally when i buy a book that i don't like i give it away to a charity shop with the hope that it may benifit someome who cannot afford to splash out the high prices of certain books, But i will give Unix power tools the chance to redeem itself. I will allow this book the honour of resting on my book shelf alongside the much more worthy unix manuals in the hope that one day Unix Power Tools may provide me with some important bit of information that the other superior unix manuals are lacking.

O'reilly needs to think more carefully about the pricing of its books.

This book is the best Unix book I have ever come across and would recommend it to anyone and everyone.