Mac OS X Help Desk Essentials

by Owen W. Linzmayer

The only Apple-certified book on Mac OS X, this comprehensive reference takes support technicians and ardent Mac users deep inside their operating systems, covering everything from networking... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321278488
• ISBN13: 9780321278487
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Peachpit Press
• Length: 514 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Overall Decent Technical Resource

I am excited about this book because it is the first publication on one of the certification programs for Mac OS X. This is a great start and I hope there can be others in the series. From these types of books, one hopes to find materials that will assist in passing the certification exams for this program "Mac OS X Help Desk Essentials". In this scope, some red flags were raised either about Apple's certification program or by the books representation of that material. Many of the questions seem rather frivolous or esoteric, and makes it hard to pass an exam if these are the indeed the types of questions. For example, one question asks: "What are five things you should do before you upgrade Mac OS 9.x to Mac OS X". One would expect perhaps five empirical technical things that would need to be done for the operation of installing Mac OS X, but instead you get things like read the "Read Before you Install" document, check the network configuration of Mac OS 9.x information, decide on installation method, upgrade to Mac OS 9.x, and back up your hard disk. The upgrading to Mac OS 9.x seems reasonable, but the other steps are esoteric and not related to the operation of Mac OS X. A company may have a backup policy in place already, or the system is a clean configuration (no data) where a backup is not needed; the network configuration could be well documented or auto-configured through DHCP and therefore this is not needed. Thus do we really have to memorize these types of fluff for an exam? Beyond the types of questions, there are one overall prevailing concern about the certification program itself, and thus the book about such content. By the time the certification is refined, a new Mac OS X version will be released. Apple tends to move rapidly to obsolete older operating systems immediately, e.g. Steve Jobs playing taps and placing Mac OS 9 in a coffin at a keynote presentation. This book is for Mac OS X 10.3, where the current version is now Mac OS X 10.4. With each operating system release, there are new configuration systems and different user interfaces for graphical tools. Though this is needed for the overall evolution of the beloved Mac OS X, it makes stapling down certification more challenging. Beyond the concerns raised, I do feel the book has some decent material for technical coverage of previous Mac OS X operating system. There is even some great advance material for configuration Mac OS X to use Kerberos and LDAP or even Windows Active Directory for authentication. The other thing that I think is nice is that there is reference to technical articles within each chapter allowing readers to research more exacting material from Apple's online documentation. I only hope that there can be more books like these, and I dearly hope that the certification program can improve. I hope the concerns raised might be addressed at some point (are some of the esoteric questions from the certification or book representation?), b

Just What the Help Desk Person Needs.

Even Apple users need help once in a while. So Apple shops have to have a help desk just like any other shop. This book presumes a basic level of familiarity with the Macintosh operating system, and then goes on to provide in-depth technical information and procedures that are used by Apple-certified technicians to install, configure, maintain, and diagnose Macintosh computers. It is oriented, as you might expect, to teach help-desk personnel to knowledgeably address customer concerns and questions. Each chapter is presented as a self contained lession, complete with an introduction, summary and a review quiz. The book is arranged as a help desk professional would appreciate. It covers those areas that he is likely to be asked about, not an attempt to give an in depth lession in the OS.