macOS for Macintosh Computers (1 of 2)

• macOS (formerly called Mac OS X) is a proprietary OS only available for Macintosh

computers by Apple Inc.
• Built on a Unix foundation
• At the time of this writing, macOS Mojave was just released
• The Mac keyboard has some special keys (see Figure 18-1)
• The touch pad on a Mac laptop is called the trackpad
• You can use multiple fingers and actions called gestures

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
macOS for Macintosh Computers (2 of 2)

Figure 18-1 Special keys on a Mac

keyboard

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights
Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in
part.
 Getting to Know the macOS Desktop (9 of 16)

• Spotlight
• Spotlight is a search app
• To open, click the search icon on the right side of the menu bar
• Mission Control and Multiple Desktops
• Mission Control gives you a quick view of all open windows and desktops
• Lets you switch among them
• Multiple desktops allows for several desktop screens each with its own collection of
open windows
• Each desktop screen is called a Space

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Getting to Know the macOS Desktop (11 of 16)

• iCloud and iCloud Drive

• When a user signs in to macOS for the first time
• They are given the opportunity to set up iCloud with an Apple ID
• To open iCloud Drive, click it in the Finder window or in Launchpad
• Drag and drop files in and out of the iCloud Drive window
• Contents are synced with any iPhone, iPad, or Windows desktop that has the iCloud
Drive app installed
• Keychain
• Keychain is the macOS built-in password manager
• To open, go to the Finder window, drill down to the Applications list, click Utilities,
double-click Keychain Access app

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Getting to Know the macOS Desktop (14 of 16)

• Terminal
• Terminal in macOS is similar to a command prompt window in Windows
• Exception: Terminal uses UNIX commands because macOS is based on UNIX
• To open Terminal:
• Open Finder, click Applications, and double-click the Utilities folder
• Scroll down and double-click Terminal

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Linux Operating System (1 of 2)

• Linux is a variation of UNIX OS created by Linus Torvalds

• Open source and all programming instructions (source code) are freely distributed
• Can be used as an OS for desktop, servers, mobile devices and IoT devices
• Most popular OS for server applications such as web servers and email servers
• Android and Chrome OS is based on Linux
• Versions of Linux are called distributions or flavors
• Linux is the kernel for the OS, not a complete OS
• A shell for user and application interfaces is needed
• Many distributions of Linux include a GUI shell or desktop, which is called a windows
manager

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Linux Operating System (2 of 2)

Figure 18-37 Ubuntu Desktop with the

Mozilla Firefox browser window open

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights
Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in
part.
 Linux Installs, Updates, and Backups (1 of 4)

• Install software
• Click the Ubuntu Software button (Ubuntu Desktop software appears), click an item and
then click Install to start its installation
• You can also install an app by clicking a setup file you have downloaded
• Update Ubuntu and apps
• To update, click Updates in the Ubuntu Software window
• Updates for Ubuntu are listed first, followed by app updates
• Click beside the updates you want to install
• Change update settings
• Open the Software & Updates menu, click Software & Updates, click the Updates tab

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Linux Installs, Updates, and Backups (2 of 4)

Figure 18-40 Change how Ubuntu

Desktop handles updates

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights
Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in
part.
 Linux Installs, Updates, and Backups (3 of 4)

• Configure backups
• Click the Apps button
• In the list of apps, scroll down and click Utilities
• Click the Backups utility
• Using the Backups window you can schedule backups, decide where backups are stored,
and select which items are included in the backup

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Linux Installs, Updates, and Backups (4 of 4)

Figure 18-42 Schedule an Ubuntu

Desktop backup

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights
Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in
part.
 Telnet and SSH for Remote Access

• In Linux, the primary utilities for remote access at a shell prompt are Telnet and SSH
(Secure Shell)
• Telnet does not encrypt transmissions
• SSH encrypts all transmissions and is more secure than Telnet
• To remotely access a Linux system from a Windows or Linux computer:
• Turn on Telnet Client in the Windows Features window
• Use the following command to open a Telnet session using the correct IP address for the
Linux system you want to remote in to:
• telnet 192.168.1.160
• To use SSH to remote in:
• ssh [email protected]
• To close each session, use the logout command

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Comparing Windows, macOS, and Linux

• Tips to help you decide between Windows, macOS, and Linux:

• User desktop and laptops – Windows and macOS are well-suited for desktops and
laptops
• Server applications – Linux is popular as a server OS for web servers, email servers, and
DNS servers
• However, Windows Server with Active Directory is more popular for controlling and
securing access to a network in a corporate environment
• End-of-life vendor limitation – it is important to know when an OS will no longer be
supported by its manufacturer
• Compatibility between OSs – macOS and Linux are more compatible with each other
than with Windows
• The FAT32 file system can be read by all and is therefore the file system of choice
when concerned with compatibility

Andrews/Dark/West, CompTIA A+ Guide to IT Technical Support, 10th Edition. © [2020] Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May
not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.