Thoughts in line.,.
--Matt Ross Ephrata School District On Sep 7, 2010, at 10:31 AM, "David Lum" <david....@nwea.org> wrote: > I have come up with a list: > > Here's my concerns about bringing Mac into our Windows workplace: > * Group Policy (specifically our Computer Use Policy banner, and we have > browser favorites pushed as well) Correct, Mac OS X does not natively support Active Directory Group Policy. But it does support these features using Open Directory. > * Browser support (means IE is no longer the our only officially supported > browser for internal w/ SharePoint, etc) Correct, there is no longer a version of IE for the Mac. Blame Microsoft for this one. > * Login scripts Mac OS X supports login hooks, which is very similar. What do you want you login script to so for you Mac users? > * SMS reporting on hardware and software Apple Remote Desktop offers some (if not most) of the same reporting. > * Patching (Shockwave, Flash, etc). > And with Mac OS X, this is even more difficult. Java and Flash are part of the Mac OS X "dot" updates (10.6.x) and can regress software to earlier versions. This was a problem with a Flash vulnerability not too long ago. Combine that with installers not using the standard .pkg package format, and it becomes very difficult. > Can centrally manage these for Macs? Yes. Using only our current tools? Nope. > > I don't have a heartache with a mix of Mac and Windows, I have a heartache of > people in my company thinking it adds no discernable management overhead or > cost. > I agree completely. I'd management does not want to support two platforms, they shouldn't. > Dave > > -----Original Message----- > From: Matthew W. Ross [mailto:mr...@ephrataschools.org] > Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 9:54 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Mac and Windows mix > > Macs are not the burden you make them sound to be. > > Integrating a Mac into a windows network is never going to be painless; the > two systems are inherently different. If what you want is a Windows > experience from your Mac, install Windows. > > Now not everybody likes MacOS X, but the same can be said for Windows. Insert > the problem of subjective preference here. > > Personally, I love working on my iMac, and managing the other Macs in our > district is very easy if you use the provided Apple tools: Mac OS X server, > Open Directory, and Apple Remote Desktop. > > Then again, I hate how a Mac _can_ cost 2x as much as a comparable PC. I do > like that software upgrades are cheaper for Mac, but I don't like how apple > drops support for anything that is not the current generation or the previous > one. If you're 2 generations back, you're out of luck. > > What can a Mac do that a PC Can't? Nothing. But I would argue that > competition is one of the pillars of innovation. Without Mac OS X competing > against Windows, what would Windows look like today? > > > --Matt Ross > Ephrata School District > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: James Hill > [mailto:james.h...@superamart.com.au] > To: NT System Admin Issues > [mailto:ntsysad...@lyris.sunbelt-software.com] > Sent: Sun, 05 Sep 2010 > 19:28:49 -0700 > Subject: RE: Mac and Windows mix > > >> We have pretty much eliminated all of the Mac's here. >> >> We didn't have 3rd party products to manage them so they always required so >> much manual interaction. Any global change we made we could easily automate >> with PC's thanks to group policy etc but it was always a manual change for >> the Mac's. >> >> They really aren't a corporate product imo. You only have to look to Apple >> for a corporate grade management solution to realise that it doesn't exist. >> >> They do indeed need patching (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222) and there >> is AV products for them. Symantec has one for example. Personally I think >> the day is coming when someone will write a decent bit of malware/virus for >> them and 99% plus will get caught out by it. There is a very misguided >> opinion amongst the Apple community that they are safe. Apple's false >> advertising only strengthens this. The facts are that Mac's are more >> vulnerable than the PC world http://www.crn.com/security/226200083 >> >> More importantly, what is the need for the Mac's in the first place? For us >> they were only sued for Adobe CS, which runs just fine on PC's. In fact >> these days Adobe is more behind the PC world than the Mac. For example, >> 64bit Photoshop was first on PC, had to wait for CS5 for Mac to get it. >> That's without going into the Flash debate :) >> >> >> >> >> >> From: David Lum [mailto:david....@nwea.org] >> Sent: Saturday, 4 September 2010 6:07 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: Mac and Windows mix >> >> I would like to hear from those of you who have a mixed Windows/Mac >> environments: How do you handle management of the diverse environment? >> Presumably with Mac's there is no patching or AV. Can you use GPO's on them >> in any fashion (wondering if there's some add-in to allow equivalency). >> David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER >> NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION >> (Desk) 971.222.1025 // (Cell) 503.267.9764 >> >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> --- >> To manage subscriptions click here: >> http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ >> or send an email to >> listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com<mailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com> >> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> --- >> To manage subscriptions click here: >> http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ >> or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com >> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
