New Book Release Day: Moving to zsh

My new book: “Moving to zsh” is now available on the Apple Books Store!

The book should be useful for anyone who uses macOS Terminal and is wondering what the change of the default shell in Catalina means and how to best handle the transition. The book describes the motivation for Apple (and the user) to “move to zsh” and how to get the most out of the new shell.

It is based on the series of blog posts that I posted from June through August, but reworked and expanded with more detail and more topics. Some of the information from my MacSysAdmin presentation also made it into the book.

The blog series added up to about 11K words, and the book, in its current form, is more than 22K words. Compared to the series, I have added images, movies, clarifications, more examples, and several new sections and appendices.

This books explains:
– why Apple is changing the shell
– implications for infrequent and expert Terminal users
– how to move from bash to zsh
– configuring zsh to be more productive
– moving scripts from bash to zsh

And this will certainly not be the end for “Moving to zsh.” Like my other books, I plan to update and add to it after release as well, keeping it relevant and useful.

This is my first book that is not targeted mainly at MacAdmins. I believe this book will be useful for any Mac user that uses the Terminal frequently: Developers, web admins, scientists, and other power users. Please help spread the news by sharing this post and the book link with friends, co-workers, and across social media. Thank you!

Go get “Moving to zsh” on the Apple Books Store!

Published by

ab

Mac Admin, Consultant, and Author

15 thoughts on “New Book Release Day: Moving to zsh”

  1. Greetings Armin,

    I was wavering back and forth about whether to grab up your zsh ebook or not, and then I saw Adam Engst mention it in TidBITS and I figured if it’s good enough for Adam it is good enough for me. Just ordered and downloaded it, looking forward to digging in.

  2. I also bought the book based on Josh Centers’ article at TidBITS. I’m looking forward to digging in and switching to ash. I found two typos in the first two paragraphs.

    “displays the results of those commands and program” should be “programs”

    “Back when computers where large” should be “were large”.

    Happily, the typo-to-paragraph ratio drops precipitously from there!

    1. Thanks! Hope you like the rest! (and those two typos will be fixed in the next update.)

      1. And, of course, autocorrect put a typo in my comment by changing zsh to ash. I am liking the rest of the book. It is absolutely worth the price.

  3. Looks like the book is not available in the Indian store 🙁 Any chance of making it available either in the Indian store or on an alternative platform?

    1. I have made the book available in all regions where Apple Books lets me self-publish. Unfortunately, India is not among those regions. Please share your feedback with Apple India about this.

      Until then, I can only recommend to get a US Apple ID with a US iTunes/AppStore Gift card… Sorry.

      I have no plans right now to publish to other platforms. I have had problems with the rich media (esp. videos) on other book platforms and would have to re-layout and re-build the books.

      1. Is it possible to make the .iBooks file available from a platform like GumRoad or similar? Just wondering 🙂

        Meanwhile, will be looking up the blog posts and the talks – thanks for your detailed response!

      2. The books are a side project at best, so no plans right now to take on the task of evaluating and setting up an alternative publishing platform.

    1. There’s an email in the book which you can use! Much appreciated!

  4. Your blog has helped me immensely as I went ahead and “bit the bullet” so to speak and moved to zsh with the Big Sur release, so I’ve gone ahead and purchased your book.

    That said, I’m not a particular fan of the macOS Books application, and I like to have my references open in an eReader (it’s easier on my eyes than the iPad) next to my computer while I work, so consider this another “me too” if you should ever reconsider an alternate platform or static snapshots as an ePub or PDF.

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