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sheer · Sep 13, 2004, 12:13 PM

Hard to implement? Our systems folks seem to think so, adding *We neither have the time or inclination to learn about OSX*.

Otherwise I'm staring down the barrel of a gun with a Dell logo on it loaded with win2k bullets...

sbjordal · Sep 13, 2004, 12:43 PM

Originally posted by sheer:
Hard to implement? Our systems folks seem to think so, adding *We neither have the time or inclination to learn about OSX*.

Otherwise I'm staring down the barrel of a gun with a Dell logo on it loaded with win2k bullets...

Very easy. Panther clients include the AD plugin, that will let you authenticate against Active Directory just fine. No schema extentions needed, and network homedirectories too.

jguidroz · Sep 13, 2004, 01:19 PM

My Panther Powebook is capable of authenticating against our domain if I so choose (in fact it's all configured), but I choose not to since I can do everything I need to without it.

Chris Grande · Sep 13, 2004, 04:57 PM

Take a look at this: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...directory.html

Hope you get to use your Mac, since there are no problems authenticating against AD.

sheer · Sep 13, 2004, 05:51 PM

Well, when we first got an OSX box in I was the one who had to set it up for connecting to servers and virtual printing (for PDFs) because our 2k certified systems guy didn't have a clue where to start. The servers were easy (apple-k), virtual printing was a little trickier and took all of two minutes googling for a solution. The fact these people don't even have to get off their arse to find things out (ie google) yet won't even do that is nothing short of frustrating. And for a systems person (or anyone for that matter) not being willing to learn something new is plain narrow-minded.

My dilemma is all the printers we use are mac-based, our workflows are mac-based yet someone who just does systems work and has NO experience of my job is telling me Win2K is what I'm gonna be using because it's the best solution

It doesn't help that our duplicitous IT manager says one thing to the designers and another thing to his system guys...

laxthxdude · Sep 13, 2004, 05:58 PM

I've implemented 2 OS X 10.3 systems on AD so far and both went well.

It wasn't so much to connect them (just enter the info) as it was to overcome the ignorant IT Directors assuming: Macs don't work on Windows networks, you can't network a Mac, you can't do anything on a Mac but graphics.

So after setting it in AD, mapping to normal window shares, connecting to windows shared printers and setting up Entourage, all I could really get was a 'wow, thats pretty cool. I didn't know Macs could do that'. To which I responsed: 'and now when a virus brings your network to a halt, you'll have a machine that still works'.

Seriously though - if M$ would make a DECENT email client that is a GOOD CITIZEN on the EXCHANGE system, things would be much easier. I think I'm better off waiting for the Ximan port to OS X...

laxthxdude · Sep 13, 2004, 05:58 PM

oh ya,
www.macosxlabs.org is the place for info on this kind of thing...
highly recommended site.

jguidroz · Sep 13, 2004, 10:37 PM

Originally posted by laxthxdude:
I've implemented 2 OS X 10.3 systems on AD so far and both went well.

It wasn't so much to connect them (just enter the info) as it was to overcome the ignorant IT Directors assuming: Macs don't work on Windows networks, you can't network a Mac, you can't do anything on a Mac but graphics.

So after setting it in AD, mapping to normal window shares, connecting to windows shared printers and setting up Entourage, all I could really get was a 'wow, thats pretty cool. I didn't know Macs could do that'. To which I responsed: 'and now when a virus brings your network to a halt, you'll have a machine that still works'.

Seriously though - if M$ would make a DECENT email client that is a GOOD CITIZEN on the EXCHANGE system, things would be much easier. I think I'm better off waiting for the Ximan port to OS X...

Don't know if your company uses Outlook Web Access, but our is configured, and I've had no issues using Mail.app to check my Exchange account both on-site and off-site.

laxthxdude · Sep 14, 2004, 05:59 PM

its about resource scheduling, delegating authority to other users, open other resources up, etc that is the real need for full support. OWA is good (and much better in 2003) but the facts are that even M$ cripples OWA features with non-IE clients. 10MB through OWA is painful - this is why the client is still nice. Not that I'm a lotus notes fan at all, but if they can keep a X version up to date, I'd assume m$ could do it also...

(OWA is required for Entourage 2004 btw)