By Michael Whitney
washingtonpost.com
June 15, 1997

The Internet is a giant amorphous blob of computer networks and cables. If you tried to diagram the whole thing, it would look like a stringy paint splatter. That makes it difficult to write a coherent guide to the complex tangle. Things tend to run together.

Faced with this difficulty, these beginners' guides to the Internet choose to focus on computer software that interacts with the network—and alienate whatever part of their audience is not using their favorite operating system.

Half of the books explain only Unix, the system programmers use. Half feature only Windows 95. Neither half is useful to everyone. To their credit, the books featuring the Unix operating system offer the best information about the Internet. Unfortunately, most beginners will be lost in the technical details.

The middle of the road, and the best guide, was a not-quite-comprehensive amalgam of the rest, "The Internet for Dummies." It was the only book that described how the Internet works and included instructions for Unix and Windows 95, including several programs on each platform.

Bottom Line: A one-stop resource for those looking to build basic Net savvy on Unix, Windows or Macintosh platforms.

Details: The Dummies Guide stands out as the best of this category because it doesn't rely solely on a browser, an online service or references to Web sites to demonstrate how to use the Internet.

Instead—and this was a radical idea among the Windows-based books—the Dummies Guide takes several pages to explain how the Internet works. It covers e-mail, newsgroups and the Web, introducing what each technology is before it details how to use it.

Most Windows-based introductory books are written solely to plop the reader down in the right spots on the Internet. Though this guide does that, the authors also seem to think it would be a good idea for new users to know what they're doing when they get there.

Bottom Line: The most complete introduction to the Internet, but also the most difficult to understand.

Details: This book is the best reference for users who have access to a Unix prompt, but, unfortunately, those users are few and far between. The most popular means of connection to the Internet since the boom of the World Wide Web is PPP or SLIP accounts, which this book barely mentions.

Despite the focus on Unix—or perhaps because of it—the "The Whole Internet Catalog" is a wonderful resource for readers who want to understand how exactly everything on the Internet works. It offers heavy doses of material that other beginner books brush aside. One entire chapter is dedicated to proper behavior online, and not just newsgroup netiquette.

All of this adds up to a dubious distinction: This may be the only introductory book that is not for beginners. Absolute novices should pick up an easier guide for their first online ventures, and then, when they want to fill in all the gaps in their knowledge, read this one.

Bottom Line: Good anecdotal writing about the Internet, but a little out of date.

Details: If your system is Unix and you're interested in anecdotes from the early history of the Internet and great resources for Internet advocacy, pick up "Zen and the Art of the Internet." Its instructions, though excellent, are entirely for the Unix command line with very few concessions to Windows or Macintosh users.

And, despite an extensive list of online resources, "Zen" is out of date. For example, some FTP sites it lists have long since been translated into Web pages, which are much easier to navigate and understand.

In 1994, when most Internet users were on text-based, Unix command line systems, this was an excellent basic resource for absolute beginners, and not as weighty as "The Whole Earth Catalog." Today, more advanced users might enjoy learning the text commands and hearing the stories, but the new crop of beginners, who only want to see a Web page, will be left in the dark.

Bottom Line: In the quest to be simple, this book leaves out the basics.

Details: "Using the Internet" is written very much in the tone and spirit of Web media enthusiasts. It begins in the very first chapter when the author shows diagrams of USA Today and Yahoo in Web browser windows and delivers an endorsement of Web advertising in his best Mr. Rogers tone. "Internet old-timers really scorn advertising on the Internet. It violates their concept of 'acceptable use.' Phooey." Later, an enlightening Web chapter heading informs you that "The Web may be all you ever need."

The author gets points for explaining the concept of "shareware" and some of the security concerns of the Internet. He loses points by spending five pages detailing the proper use of the DejaNews Web site but never explaining, even vaguely, how anything works. For all we know after finishing this book, the Web, the UseNet and e-mail are some wonderful form of electronic magic, somehow generated by rubbing networks together.

Bottom Line: Almost identical to its competitors, but less complete.

Details: "Roadmap" launches into its first chapter with, for some odd reason, the finger command, a function that most commercial Internet providers no longer support because of security and privacy concerns. Most books use e-mail to demonstrate domain names and launch into a discussion of Telnet, but this one chooses "finger"... and then has to explain why finger so often ends up in error messages.

But Roadmap's greatest flaw is not its fault. It's simply not as complete as "The Whole Earth Catalog" or "Zen and the Art of the Internet," its major competitors for the Unix-based newcomers to the Internet.

Bottom Line: If you like Netscape—and only Netscape—you'll love this one.

Details: A better title might have been: "How to Use Netscape Navigator to Use the Internet." This book is nothing more than a Netscape manual. Basic operations in Netscape may be easier to explain and understand than what exactly the Web is about, but the information is ultimately useless when the next version of Navigator changes the menu options.