[n5tkn]

We have about 5 macs, all on 10.2.8 and one on 10.3, that are our prepress (layout, etc) computers, and an Xserve that houses our files.

I'd like to create an image, or network boot system, that would create a standardized desktop, customized dock, with our applications, drive mappings etc, that could not be modified, (nothing saveable to the desktop, etc., I'd even like to lock the desktop wallpaper if possible.)


I've seen discussions on this, but am now to the point I'm TIRED of chasing around problems that I think would be solved by this. There of course would be some client specific settings, such as different scanners, (thats just about it, too) that would need to be addressed. I've got us on a gigbit network, so I'm not worried about having to transfer large files over it for this, we do that anyway with nice big Photoshop files as it is.


Where is a good place to start, an RTFM is okay too, but any pointers would really be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Jellytussle]

Well, i think www.bombich.com is the place to start reading up on this sort of thing (after the RTFM, of course), but why NetBoot? you can push a standard loadset to all machines with asr (wrapped in Netrestore for convenience) and just have users with network homes. Why lock the desktop, it's theirs? why control the desktop pattern (wallpaper's for walls!), it's theirs? OSX server, especially with Panther, gives a lot of control to the administrator, but making users feel disempowered* can be counterproductive.


*sorry, been in a lot of meetings with management consultants lately.