While Weather Central’s newspaper division has exploited Apple’s advanced graphics features and manageability for years, it has struggled to integrate the Mac environment with Windows. The latest release of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, code-named Tiger, should address that concern, says Chuck Sholdt, vice president of operations and co-owner of the daily weather map provider in Madison, Wis.
While Weather Central’s newspaper division has exploited Apple’s advanced graphics features and manageability for years, it has struggled to integrate the Mac environment with Windows.
The latest release of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, code-named Tiger, should address that concern, says Chuck Sholdt, vice president of operations and co-owner of the daily weather map provider in Madison, Wis.
Mac OS X 10.4 officially launched late last month and includes more than 200 new features, including native 64-bit support on the server and an advanced search tool, called Spotlight, on the desktop. Version 10.4 integrates more than 100 open source projects into the Unix-based server operating system, including the open source file and print server Samba, the Apache Web server and Open Directory.
Open Directory, which enables Mac systems to plug into proprietary directory environments such as Microsoft’s Active Directory, is a key feature for Sholdt, who has been testing Mac OS X 10.4 for more than a year and likes what he sees.
Version 10.3, also called Panther, was intended to make it easier to integrate Macs with Windows and Linux environments. But logons and permissions had to be maintained separately. “So we weren’t really a member of the rest of the network. With Open Directory we can link to our domain server and become full-fledged members of the Windows world,” Sholdt says.
In addition, new access control lists in Tiger give users the ability to set detailed permissions for files and network services, a capability that goes beyond traditional Unix permissions. Other updates in Tiger include the iChat server, which enables users to set up multi-user chat environments based on the open source Jabber protocol and integration of Xgrid, Apple’s clustering software.
While Apple has a solid product with Tiger, analysts say the challenge will be getting more IT executives to take a look at the operating system.
Apple is barely a blip in the operating system market, lumped into the “other category” in a stagnant Unix market that accounted for just 11.2% of worldwide server operating environment software shipments in 2004, according to IDC.
Mac OS X Server 10.4 costs roughly $500 for a 10-client license and twice that for an unlimited client license. The desktop operating system starts at $129 for a single-user license.
