Hopeless Geek

Reading over the list of new features in Mac OS X 10.4 and Mac OS X 10.4 Server makes one feel good for the platform.

Best Innovations

Mac OS X

• Spotlight – Friggin’ cool technology that makes the whole system one big database. Taking a hint from Google’s very smart interface this is accessible via one search field for the whole system. Developers can integrate their apps into it and become part of the database as well. All text, everywhere, is indexed. Filesystem, mail, people, everything is available, all the time.
• Dashboard – Blatant steal of Konfabulator, yes, but this is what I wanted, personally. The biggest design flaw in Konfabulator is that it’s always-on. I have an iBook. Those are big friggin’ widgets. I can’t do that. Now, on-when-I-need-them works out great for me. If Arlo wants to add that to Konfabulator then I’m game. Hell, there’s more he can do with Konfabulator anyway than Apple will. Great idea, man, just go further. Make it stand out. Hell, make it code-compatible with Dashboard and then you can share widgets; then you just need to add distinctive features. This could easily become a good thing.
• Automator – Just … exceptional. Task-based scripting for grandma. Just … wow.

Mac OS X Server

• Built-in Xgrid – Mmm. Clusters.
• NT Migration Tool – Pulls accounts and settings off an NT server and sets up the Mac OS X Server to replace the PDC in one step. Very smart.
• Local Software Update Server – Cache Apple’s SU server for your company. Save on bandwidth costs when the next 80MB system update comes out. Or when you have to get 400MB of updates after reinstalling a system…

Best Catch-Ups

Mac OS X 10.4

• 64-bit Library Support – Better late than never. It would have been nice to have this when the 64-bit chips came out (remember that they first shipped with Mac OS X 10.2.8 … ) or at least with the first reference release afterwards. But, it’s here, now.
• ACLs – I honestly can’t express enough how essential it was for Mac OS X to get this. Windows has had this since Windows NT. FreeBSD has had this for several years. When Mac OS X Tiger updated to the FreeBSD core, this came along with it.
• iChat AV – Conferencing for the rest of us. Combined with the iChat Server in Mac OS X 10.4 Server you have an intracompany IM and audio|video conferencing solution (using Jabber, no less). Or you can bring a bunch of people together and just watch the game together without taking off across town (which, of course, defeats the purpose of getting together, but sometimes you can’t make it happen).
• VoiceOver – The Mac was in dire need of a good screen reader. Now it’s built-in. Excellent.

Mac OS X Server 10.4

• Mobile Accounts – An upgrade to the rather useless current Mobile Accounts, this time they added file syncing. Nice afterthought, since Windows NT had this and WinNT is the epitome of “outdated server product” these days.
• Ethernet Link Aggregation – Link bonding in Server. About time.
• Service Failover – Pair services with other servers that can be backups. When the server does down clients go to the other system.
• SpamAssasin – Included. Nice.
• Mail Server Clustering – The tools already did it, so it’s nice that it’s a part of the package now.
• Mail Server Virtual Hosts – Why in the name of Steve hasn’t the Mac OS X Server product ever supported this damn feature?! Finally, years later they put this in the OS. It’s about damned time.
• Site-to-Site VPN – Link up two servers in a WAN and provide it to your network. Everyone else did it so it’s good to see Tiger doing it.

Still Need

As far as Mac OS X will go with this, it’s still lacking some core essentials that it appears we’ll need to wait on 10.6 for.

• Virtual Desktops – Geekery? Not really. Run Final Cut in one set of windows, LiveType in another, and DVD Studio Pro in another. Video geeks would wet their pants for the chance to unclutter when on the road.
• Server Monitor for Clients – A system administrator needs to know the “health” of all computers at a location, not just the servers. Even Remote Desktop can’t do this.
• More?