A+ Certification/Exam Objectives/Operating Systems

Identifying operating systems

Although the examination focuses almost exclusively on Microsoft's Windows operating system (OS), one should also know about differences among other operating systems.

Microsoft operating systems:

• Legacy Windows OSes (need only to know upgrade paths):
  • Windows 95
  • Windows 98
  • Windows ME
  • Windows NT 4.0
  • Windows 2000
  • Windows XP
• Current Windows OSes (focus on these for the new exam):
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 10

Apple operating systems:

• Mac OS X (which is based on Unix-like system-exam question)
• iOS (for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)

Unix-like operating systems:

• BSD (and derivations like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD)
• NextStep
• GNU/Linux
• Google Android