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Mac OS X Labs Deployment Initiative

Posted by pudge on from the macs-in-school-is-so-early-90s dept.

Richard Glaser writes "Members of the Apple University Executive Forum are working on a project called the Higher Education Mac OS X Lab Deployment Initiative. The web site has our goals, what we've found so far, pointers to areas of ongoing exploration, and a forum where registered members can ask questions and share their findings. We have created a list of resources and tools (including RsyncX, an implementation of rsync with HFS+ support). Apple has recently placed several links to our site from the education area of their web site; we are pleased with this evidence of support of the work we have done so far."

3 of 9 comments (clear)

  1. Makes sense to me by jeblucas · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Some of the stories mentioned at that link are lame tales of guitar majors wowing friends with digital soundboards, but some of them are really pretty interesting and of value to scientific commmunities. Apple is making a huge push in this realm, and OS X is what's getting them there. Cornell has a protein crystallography group that uses Cocoa apps to help out (impressive screenshot here.

    I know my wife's lab is all Macs for CellQuest flow cytometry software, and with BLAST, folding@home, Mathematica's new build and other initiatives, Apple is making strides in scientfic fileds--they have every right to be gassy about it.

    --
    blarg.
  2. A Needed Resource by Spencerian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Mac OS X and X Server have all the pinnings of a manageable computer network, much of it compatible with or identical with other computer standards such as LDAP. I've read the PDF on interfacing Mac OS X users with Windows 2000 Active Directory, and it is a promising tool I can use in the future.

    What Apple still needs is the breadth of documentation to teach and apply these tools. Try a search on Google on "NetInfo" and you'll find many topics, very few of which explains information about Apple's OS directory system.

    It's a good system, mind you, with promise. However, I can find a book on a NetInfo counterpart, Windows 2000 Active Directory, easily. Apple still lacks sufficient IT professional credibility since there isn't as much documentation. They are trying to change this (through new certifications--see www.apple.com/service), but the way is glacial compared to Windows and UNIX services.

    Perhaps Apple should extend NetInfo to other UNIX operating systems--maybe even open source it to gain a greater support and technical base.

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    Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
    1. Re:A Needed Resource by BeeShoo · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Perhaps Apple should extend NetInfo to other UNIX operating systems--maybe even open source it to gain a greater support and technical base" NetInfo was a part of NeXTstep/OPENstep (sorry if I got the capitalization wrong. I don't feel like looking it up). Wouldn't it already be open sourced as part of OPENstep?