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New Apple IT Pro Section
aqsalter writes "Apple has finally created a new section for information from an IT Professionals viewpoint, with articles about all the good stuff. Previously Apple shied away from having any obvious IT focus, but it seems Apple are acknowledging their influence in the IT sphere, with two high-profile HPC clusters and enterprise class tools for managing open source technologies."
This is really long overdue. Apple has been an force for innovation in the desktop market since its inception, but they've never been taken all that seriously in the enterprise-class server market until recently. This shows that Apple really does want to be taken seriously.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Security Guide for OS X - by the U.S. National Security Agency
Email virus protection - setup SpamAssassin, ClamAV and Amavisd-new with Postfix on OS X
Linux Magazine gives OS X five penguins
The nice thing about this site, as a developer, is that everything I was looking for regarding OS X is all here. Tools, manuals, FAQs, discussion boards, you name it, it's here.
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
Most of the IT guys I know, who are calling the shots, are Windows only. Mention a Mac and they cringe.
At one school I teach at the IT admin has to put up with Macs, because we have a recording studio. Me (ESL teacher) and the music teacher also bring in our Mac laptops from time to time, which he hates. I find it strange that the music computer lab only has PCs, when it would be better for the students to have some Macs. However, with the current IT admin, there will not be any Macs there soon.
I actually keep hoping that a student will infest the network with a virsus or worm. Then I and the music teacher can say, "You know, if the server and lab boxes were Macs. You wouldn't have this problem."
A good site for managing OS X servers that seems to be getting better all the time is http://www.afp548.com/. I'm not affiliated with them btw, but it's worth checking out if this is your business.
every problem is a nail.
Historically, Apple had its own operating system(s) developed in-house. Creating enterprise systems would have been a huge extra burden for them. Now, their os is basically _nix. Existing enterprise systems can be easily integrated with Apple's stuff.
Bottom line: Apple can more easily do this now and so they are doing it.
Well the server it's on was configured not to leak any information.
Great idea! Cause there's nothing IT admins love more than being told how to do their job!
I'm switching to Windows !
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
You can find the doc if you go here: http://www.nsa.gov/snac/downloads_macX.cfm
I am Dyslexic of Borg. Your ass will be laminated.
I always wonder why Apple seems to be so popular for HPC? I mean, Apple makes good hardware and a very nice OS an all, but each compute node is so expensive that it doesn't seem worth it. To buy an compute node with roughly the same power costs half as much if you use Xeon or Athlon processors with support contracts with a large company. I had to design several clusters with a price limit of of $120,000. We could get 45-60 Apple boxes, or 240 Intel boxes. Yes the Xeon boxes where slower, but with almost 5 times as many boxes you get 5 times the memory, 5 times the disk space per node, and such. If your program is that processor dependant (or can't scale beyond a few nodes) you can run several copies at once. The power consumption of an Apple was almost the same as an Intel last I heard and the heat produced is almost exactly the same. Granted over several dozen/hundred nodes this can be a difference but it doesn't seem like nearly enough to make it worth $2k a node.
So my question is this. What makes Apple worth the money as a compute node? (I am not asking for desktops and such, only compute nodes) Anybody out there have a chance to do the purchasing for an Apple cluster? We always come back to Intel because of the cost so it would be nice to see the other side of the coin.
iT :)
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Here's the Security guide for OS X. It looks like they've revised it since they first listed it.
Let's analyze some well-known monopolies.
Microsoft = communism? Yes, sure. But, going back in time to other famous monopolies...
Rockefeller's Standard Oil = communism
Thanks a lot for opening my eyes!
Die-hard views in IT about Apple products may change, as did many ways we do things post-September 11, when (not if) a major computer security catastrophe occurs which could render many Windows operating systems inoperable. It's bound to happen--the laws of chaos and Murphy's Law dictate that something with order will be occasionally paired with disorder.
IT hasn't had that wake-up call yet. History has shown that lack of diversification leads to fatal results. Having only one way of doing things, or in this case, only one choice in handling services, causes a backlash when elements of the systems are put to test.
I've been an IT professional specializing in Apple products for over 12 years now. Despite the advances (administratively and competitively) that Apple and other companies have done in providing alternatives that work as well or better than the mainstream products, many IT pros still have NO FSCKING CLUE about the alternatives. They aren't TRAINED to think about alternatives, but only to do what they can with what they have.
They may be a time where one of the many serious vulnerabilties found in Windows is fully and dangerously exploited, leading to failures of various sorts throughout the country and the world. Data is lost. Networks paralyzed. And all through such a time, computers running operating systems that are much more resistant or immune to these issues will aid in keeping our businesses working despite ourselves and our industry's lack of vision.
It was a lack of imagination that led to the some of the world's notable disasters like the Titanic, the recent tsunamis, the Apollo 1, Shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies, the Macerena and Anna Nicole Smith. Someone in the IT world has to wake up and see that putting all the eggs in a basket may be cheaper, but that it is still one basket.
I try to educate and never preach about the use and capabilities of Apple products, and I'm sure others try with Linux and other operating systems. I hope a site like this, sanctioned by Apple itself, adds a bit more professionalism to the mix of offerings.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Dear Apple,
Welcome to the field of Information Technology. Heh.
This is my sig. There are thousands more, but this one is mine.
Maybe they don't love being told how to do their jobs, but they sure as hell love creating job security by standardizing us all on machines that require near constant attention.
I love when our IT guys try to tell us things like "Macs can't network", "Macs can't use the internet", and my personal favorite... "Apple is going out of business".
Maybe instead of being told how to do their jobs, they should take it upon themselves to learn how to do their jobs.
I have supported Apple products for years and have always had problems with the quality and amount of documentation Apple creates. Just for curiosity I went to the new section http://www.apple.com/itpro/ and clicked on their featured article "Integrating MacOSX and Active Directory." This page is a sales pitch. It clearly explains that OS X is capable of authenticating to AD, but offers no advice on how to set up that authentication. Next to this sales pitch are several links to the websites of enthusiast and Apple employees who have developed documentation for Apple products and features in their personal time. I think it is shameful that Apple has to link to enthusiast sites for concise documentation of their products. Apple has never done a good job of creating useful documentation. To defend Apple, the do provide a link to their 190 page PDF detailing Open Directory and it is required reading for true professionals. But for questions regarding specific issues or general questions, it can be amazingly difficult to find the information you need. I have become accustom to searching independent Mac resources before I turn to Apple for information. Hopefully, this will change with the new IT Pro focus. Shea
Within the Apple enclave, there is even less "freedom" than in the Microsoft world. Using the "communism" analogy, what you are doing is cheering on North Korea as compared to China.
There is much more of a "you must use this hardware to run this software!" thing going on. You can also check with the PlayFair folks about Apple's tendencies. If you want "Competition = free market = you choose.", look to the Linux world. They bend over backwards for such "freedom": interopability, hardware flexibility, and open standards, and user participation in major developments. You don't have everything being handed down from a "Politburo" like you do with Apple and Microsoft.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Should really be something like:
I have no knowledge of this page, nor would I be at liberty to disclose this page if it did in fact exist. Sir.
I wouldn't suggest running Solaris on it, but I've got a SparcStation 5 that has run both NetBSD and Debian Linux during various times of its life. It's held up like a champ with both OSes as a simple fileserver/gateway.
I don't moderate anymore. Karma penalty for 90% fair mods? Can I mod that unfair?
Yes, the website is run on WebObjects, on Xserve servers and OS X. Streaming is done with QuickTime Streaming Server.
Apple owns FileMaker so that would mean they have a database but whether they use it for the website I don't know. Oracle loves them and Larry E was a board member so maybe they use Oracle for the larger jobs and Filemaker for smaller jobs?
Pixar, Jobs' other company, has been doing a transition from Intel hardware over to Xserve now that Apple has RAID and SAN solutions together with Shake for video compositing as well as Pixar's own Renderman software.
Visit the QuickTime or Pixar websites for movie trailers just to see how well it all works together.
Looks like Apple is trying to capitalize on IT departments' relative unhappiness with Windows. I actually have a Mac at home, and I think it's a great desktop machine. From an admin point of view, you can lock down anything you want, and it's stable. Of course, any advantage regarding spyware and viruses will go away once enough people start using MacOS...right now most hackers can't be bothered. One of the biggest problems we deal with is Windows patch management and virus/spyware control.
Plus, the good thing about MacOS is that the desktop/window manager is fully mature. Recent advances in the Linux kernel really help the whole plug-and-play thing, but it seems like a unified set of desktop apps or an accepted One True Window Manager is a ways off. It's going to take a Red Hat or an IBM clamping down on feature creep and version control to make that happen.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple managed to sneak a few XServes in as departmental file/print servers or other low-end tasks. MacOS is very cool under the hood as well as on the surface.
That's because the Mac would set them free - free of a job, that is...
you're asserting something to be true which is far from universally accepted. folks speaking British English treat collective entities as collections of individual elements, and therefore plural. this mode of speaking is more consistent. take, for example, the hypothetical example (spoken from the point of view of a FooCo representative):
American:
FooCo is going to enter market blah. We think we can make money there.
British:
FooCo are going to enter market blah. We think we can make money there.
note that the American English version changes tense half way through, which marks a significant inconsistency. the British version has inconsistencies as well, but it's more consistent than the American version.
perhaps it's a good time to note that there are more British English speakers in the world than American English (thanks mostly to India and China). also, psychologically, i prefer the focus on the entity being a collection of individuals rather than a single entity.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
That's a pretty funny analogy.
And apt, too! Apple is just like a North Korea, except that they have fair trade (open source kernal), human rights (well-designed consistent UI), a market economy (PCI, AGP, USB, SATA, IEEE 1392, GigE), a free press (TCP/IP, OpenTalk/ZeroConf, Apache, Jabber, Kerberos, SSL).... but other than that exactly like North Korea, yes.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Are modifications from the user/developer community being incorporated into Mac OS? Not last time I heard (a dictatorship and not a democracy?).
The answer is yes. Go have a look at apple.com/opensource, there's a handy (and verifiable) chart there.
Hmmm. Where is FairPlay/AAC on that list? Speaking of a free press, click here to see the latest Apple stories on Slashdot. 2 or 3 on the first page alone are about Apple censoring users and closing communications. Definitely more Kim Jong Il than Johnny Appleseed here. This just does not happen nearly as much in the OSS world.
AAC is a Dolby standard and part of the MPEG-4 spec. FairPlay is not something I like either but that is one thing you mentioned.
As for the appledot stories, i did have a look, and I'm not sure what you are referring to. There is a story about ThinkSecret getting sued over leaking trade secrets, and some users who leaked their OS alpha. That does not strike me as draconian but hey, its just my opinion.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.