Mac OS
The Mac OS has been around since the mid 1980s, but recently was moved from Motorola chips to Intel based processors. This move has allowed Apple to take advantage of Intel dual core chips and to continue to increase its market share – which stands at about 3% of the market. Apple has been very successful with its iPod and other products to make penetration as a “digital home” manufacturer, not just another PC maker. Companies are starting to buy a few more Macs as there are very few interoperability problems between PCs and Macs. Plus, they produce really great commercials!
The Mac OS uses a concept of a Finder (think Windows Explorer) to manage the basic aspects of the OS and desktop. A lot of the concepts you find on the Windows side you will find on the Mac. Since the Mac OS is a variation of BSD, many Linux (and Unix) commands are available via a command line if you want to get into the guts of supporting the OS. We recommend you become familiar with the basic operation of the Macintosh if you have a chance, it really is a nice operating system.
Figure 17: Finder Window Guide, retrieved from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304723
The Finder Window is similar to an Explorer window. Many of the usability features you will find similar to other OSes. Figure 1 shows the main features of the Finder window. One of the funny things you will notice which makes it interesting to transition back and forth between the Operating Systems is the window control buttons – Close, Minimize, and Expand are on the opposite side of the top window bar – on the left, as opposed to the right. If you frequently use both Windows and OS X, you will find this to be a difficult thing to remember, always moving the mouse in the wrong direction at first.
The Finder also provides a column view so as you move through the hierarchy of the drive, you see the path you took.
The Mac OS X Dock provides quick access to commonly used applications and open applications. You will find an arrow below the applications which are currently open.
Unlike Windows Applications, the menu bar is at the top of the screen and does not exist within the application window. This menu bar changes based on which application you are in, the image above shows Finder’s menu bar.
Figure 18: Mac OS X System Preferences, retrieved from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304723
The Mac OS X System Preferences are similar to the Windows Control Panel. These preferences control the settings of the Mac computer and allow you to customize the machine to your liking.
Figure 19: Safari Web Browser, retrieved from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304776
Browsing the Internet is easy on the Apple Macintosh. Apple has included a web browser, Safari, to surf the Internet which is similar in features to other browsers on the market. You are welcome to install other browsers such as Firefox, Opera, or even Internet Explorer – though Microsoft has discontinued development of IE on the Mac.
Installing a printer is somewhat easier on a Mac than on a Windows PC. Most printers are installed automatically if you plug them into the Mac. On my home network, I plugged a HP Color Laserjet into the network, assigned it an IP address and my Mac automatically found it and installed a driver. On my PC, the setup wasn’t quite that easy, but 15 clicks later, I had it installed on the Windows machine as well.
This little tour is meant to expose you to the Macintosh platform. It is not necessary for you to be an expert in Macs for the A+ Certification exams, but you should be familiar with the state of the OS and how it is being used in today’s corporate environment.
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