From the book lists at Adware Report:

 All information current as of 01:12:15 Pacific Time, Tuesday, 22 February 2005.

Universal Command Guide: For Operating Systems

   by Guy Lotgering / Universal Command Guide (UCG) Training Team

  Hardcover:
    Wiley
    15 April, 2002

   US$48.99   

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Editorial description(s):

Amazon.com
Networks just aren't homogeneous anymore, despite the best efforts of operating system vendors to bring about the contrary. Many network administrators need to know how to get around in half a dozen operating systems or more; itinerant consultants find themselves in the same boat. Universal Command Guide for Operating Systems breaks new ground in the technical-book industry by documenting the interfaces--graphical as well as textual--of eight popular operating systems in one (large) volume. It's a great resource for people who have to hop from Red Hat Linux to AIX Unix (among others) frequently, or who want to use their knowledge of one operating system to help them learn another. In table after table and entry after entry, this book explains how almost every operating system you're likely to find in a modern data center exposes its functions to users and administrators.

It's hardly possible to commend the authorial team enough for the empirical research they did in compiling this book (and it is a tabular compilation, not a tutorial or prose volume of any kind). Over three years they installed all of the covered operating systems on test servers and used custom software to scan the machines for executable commands. They admit to excluding games, device drivers, and a small number of very obsolete commands from their coverage, but issue (in the preface) a challenge to all readers to find a useful command they haven't included. That kind of warranty is very rare in the technical-book industry, and it appears that this book lives up to its authors' boast of true universality.

How does the Universal Command Guide work? Say you know Microsoft Windows, and know that MSCDEX.EXE is key to making a CD-ROM drive accessible. What commands are equivalent in other operating systems? A scan of the cross-reference that opens this book (it lists every command available in every covered operating system next to its parallels in other environments) reveals what the Unixes and NetWare use, and that the Macintosh requires no special command for the purpose at all. If you want to know more about a NetWare 4.11 command, you can flip to the chapter on that operating system for complete coverage of syntax and parameters.

This is a big, supremely useful book, backed by diligent and extensive research. The only way to make it better would be to cover more operating systems (a couple more Linuxes, HP-UX, and Mac OS X would be nice), but that's a feeble criticism. If you understood the point of this book when you read the title, you'll be pleased. It'll satisfy your expectations. --David Wall

Topics covered: Every administrative command in Sun Solaris 7 and 8; IBM AIX 4.3.3; OpenBSD 2.7; Red Hat Linux 7; Novell NetWare 3.12, 4.11, 5.1, and 6; Mac OS 9.1; MS-DOS 6.22; and Microsoft Windows 95 through XP. Every command-line command and many graphical command sequences are covered fully, with information on every parameter and command variation.


Review
"…an invaluable aid…interesting reading and is a useful reference tool…" (PC Utilities – Editors Choice, No.39, 2003)


Review
"…an invaluable aid…interesting reading and is a useful reference tool…" (PC Utilities – Editors Choice, No.39, 2003)


Book Info
Provides every command from every major operating system, with cross-references to every other operating system based on functionality. A thorough reference for administrators, programmers, and developers of any operating system.


From the Back Cover
"Universal Command Guide can significantly reduce the extent of retraining by providing a solid cross-reference between command sets on a wide variety of operating systems." —Doc D'Errico, Director, eLab EMC Engineering, EMC Corporation

Universal Command Guide for Operating Systems

Windows. UNIX. Linux. NetWare. Macintosh. DOS. If youre a systems professional, chances are youre pretty familiar with commands in at least one of these operating systems. But what happens when you need to get up to speed on an operating system you dont know? This ingenious reference will have you up and running in no time. It describes and illustrates every command in every commonly used operating system - and cross-references each command to the equivalent commands in other operating systems.

Every Command and Every Option Described and Cross-Referenced!

Cross-References and more on CD-ROM!


About the Author
Guy Lotgering (Soraker, Sweden) has worked for many years as a consultant working on Novell, Microsoft, and UNIX networking systems. Currently, he works for Telecomputing AB in Sweden specializing in SBC (Server Based Computing) and ASP (Application Service Providing) Citrix solutions. The UCG Training Team consists of 19 individuals, each experts in their own fields, with combined experience of over 250 years.


Book Description
The ultimate operating system reference: Over 8,000 commands and 57,000 command options from every major operating system--Windows. UNIX. Linux. NetWare. Macintosh. DOS. If you're a systems professional, chances are you're pretty familiar with commands in at least one of these operating systems. But what happens when you need to get up to speed on an operating system you don't know? This ingenious reference will have you up and running in no time. It describes and illustrates every command in every commonly used operating system, and cross-references each command to the equivalent commands in other operating systems. The Universal Command Guide for Operating Systems bridges the gap between all operating systems by cross-referencing commands between the many different operating systems that exist today.

All major operating systems are covered and fully referenced, including IBM AIX 4.3.3; Sun Solaris 7 and 8; Red Hat Linux 7.0; OpenBSD 2.7; NetWare 3.12, 4.11, 5.1, and 6; DOS 6.22; Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, NT 4 Workstation, NT 4 Server, NT 4 Terminal Server, 2000 Professional, 2000 Server, 2000 Advanced Server; and Mac OS 9.1.

About the CD-ROM:

About the Author: Guy Lotgering (Soraker, Sweden) has worked for many years as a consultant working on Novell, Microsoft, and UNIX networking systems. Currently, he works for Telecomputing AB in Sweden specializing in SBC (Server Based Computing) and ASP (Application Service Providing) Citrix solutions. The UCG Training Team consists of 19 individuals, each experts in their own fields, with combined experience of over 250 years.




Reader review(s):

missing HPUX and Digital UNIX, May 28, 2002
This book is very complete for the OS's it covers. However, it doesn't cover HPUX or Digital Unix, which, AFAIK, are pretty popular variants of UNIX (especially HPUX).

Don't get me wrong...it's a real buy. The cross-reference and details (including examples) are excellent, and it's a "must" for persons having to deal with a heterogeneous OS environment; or for admins/users having to get used to a new OS.

I just wish the cover didn't say, "Every Command \ Every Operating System \ Cross-Referenced Together". That, to me, is misleading.

UCG book in research and teaching, November 13, 2002
I had waited a long time for a book that could serve me as "manual pages" for different operating systems.

Best part of this book is that if you are familiar with one OS you can now find the similar command in another OS. Afterall, when learning commands of a new OS the most difficult part (atleast for myself) was to ask the right questions - what can you do in this OS? I've used the book to find right commands for optimizing my Linux environment for heavy Matlab use and the book has served it's purpose well.

Because of good indexing of the book I feel that it is also good material for university students, especially for Operating systems courses.

There is one bad thing about the book, though. It is extremely big and heavy - and will probably ruin your bookbag ;D

Ambitious...and it delivers, October 13, 2002
While initially quite skeptical of a book attempting to cover such disparate operating systems, the reality is that I have found this volume to be indespensible. Since I work with Red Hat Linux primarily and Solaris (v8) also rather frequently, it's easy use the UCG to get the syntax differences of those two environments. Sure, I could just scan the man pages -- but the already well-worn out copy of my UCG has enough bookmarks and paperclip (and yellow highlights) to make turning to it easier. It has also helped me better understand that there are quite a few ways to perform networking tasks using the Windows command line (as opposed to becoming dependent on the GUI). The charts showing the equivalency of commands across the diverse operating environments is a real time-saver. As a partisan of the O'Reilly books, I've come to the general conclusion that the value of a book is inversely proportional to its size. A big, thick book is generally fluff. But, this one is the exception.

Stop the press. The search is over!, April 27, 2002
I have been buying command books for quite some time now, and i must say that nothing comes even close to what this book has to offer. Every command, every option and a complete cross-reference table, i am amazed. It doesn't matter wheter your'e coming from the microsoft, novell or unix side, this book covers it ALL. My personal recommendation is: BUY, is well worth the money.

I am truely amazed., April 25, 2002
In the ways this book could accually help me to easy learn Unix from my past experience of windows. I have tried befor to understand unix like i do windows but it has seemed so diffucult to learn that advanced text based system. I have feelt trapped
in the windows systems i used.

This book have opened that barrier for me, its so easy to understand now when i compare a windows command that i know, to a unix command who have the same functionality!

Unix is still advanced, but this book was one great step for me to recycle my window knowlage to Unix using the awesome cross-reference.

I wanna thank the author and the team who came up with this idea of book. It has really helpt me alot.

I love this book, April 16, 2002
I do not know that much about computers. But this book has opened a new world for me. It's easy to read and understand. It's easy to learn. This book should have been released years ago.

A "must have", April 10, 2002
I have got my hands on one of the first copies of Universal Command Guide - and - I'm really really impressed!!
I can understand why this book havent been out before and why it has taken Guy Lotgering and the UCG team 3 years to write it!
Both in my former work as a IT manager and my work today as area manager and projectleader I see a great use of the book. Even if I'm a 99,9% Windows user, every now and then it happens that I need to do something at a Netware or Unix, and even Mac machine and until now it has been a lot of guesses what command to use. But now - with UCG I can take the Cross Reference, see what my "normal" command name is in Windows and directly see what the command is in the other OS. If I need to know switches and so on I switch to the command part and there it is!
I also see a great need for it in my "normal" Windows enviroment - I found a lot of commands and switches that is useful but until now I dont have had a clue that they existed - or what they do!
So my advice - BUY IT! It's realy worth the money!
I have only find one disadvantage - I would really want to have it with me when I travel to my customers - and in that case I have to "work out" to get more muscles first!! It's HEAVY!

Fantastic Tool, April 23, 2002
Recieved a copy of this book 2-3 days ago and a new world has opened for me. Everything seems so simple with this book. It's easy to read the book and easy to find what you are looking for. This book saves many hours of looking for information and helps you doing a better job.

Every Command, this is it! Stop looking!, April 22, 2002
I have never seen a more comprehensive command book ever, i doubt there is anything out there that even comes close to what this book really is. Every command, every option, cross reference between operating systems, what more do we need??? I have been bying books about operating systems and hoped that there would be some kind of command description in them, the result have been poor until now. Universal Command Guide for Operating Systems covers all of my needs and are by far better than i hoped for when i bought the book. My advise to all of you is to invest in this item, it will help you in your work, it will entertain you when you're not working and it will amaze you at any time.

Best UNIX Command book ever, April 21, 2002
It is like having every man page for every unix command in one book. It is incredible! This book has absolutely every Solaris and Linux command that I have ever used and there are hundreds I did not even know existed. I can't judge AIX or OpenBSD because I don't use them but it looks complete. It even includes every switch/option for the commands. The descriptions are very clear and the examples are great. I definately recommend that you buy this book. I don't care much about the cross-referencing, I will probably never see a Novell server and we have plenty of Microssoft techies to handle any Microsoft issues but it is nice to know that it is there.
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