Does anyone know how easily OS X will fit in a common Windows office network?

Piet Keizer

Registered
I have little knowledge of the underlying technology in company networks. But in offices, I usually see Windows machines running Office applications on a network. They communicate with MS Outlook.

I know that it's possible to connect current Macs to these systems with some Mac-Windows file sharing utilities or even Virtual PC.

Now, how easily will OS X machines fit in these networks, when you connect them?

 
If you install a program called "Samba" on OS X, then the Windows machines can see shared folders on the Mac; there's also a program that can go the other direction, but I forget what it's called.

There will be new programs coming out to handle this connectivity in an easier manner (aka "Dave for OS X"). Overall, this shouldn't be an issue, but it might be a little rough going at first...

-rob.
 
Sharity is he program that goes the other way. Samba is free, but Sharity is commercial software. You can find Sharity at versiontracker.com

Good luck,
 
AppleshareIP and MacOS X Server have windows networking compatibility. The new version of OSX server will be very attractive for people in cross-platform networks (including me). Plus, all those server tools are fun to fool around with! Gotta shell out the cash though...
 
That is true. Samba does come with smbclient, but you can't mount SMB shares in OS X using Samba, at least not yet. If you need to mount something using SMB then you should use Sharity or DAVE for OS X (if it is out yet).
 
Dear All,

I have been using MacOS X since it's release in March 2001. At first, using it the working environment was small, it was only good for Internet surfing and email. As the months have gone by and major applications have become more available on X, using it in the office is a real thing. I now use MacOS X in the office about 90% of the time. The other 10% is working in QuarkXPress, which has not gone Carbon yet. The major switch was when MS Office was released. First, you had the most common word processor, Word, and a first class email package, Entourage. My organisation uses MS Exchange 5.5, so I can't wait for Outlook for X to be released so that I can have functionility like other people.

OK, Virtual PC has been released on X, but it is very slow in comparison to MacOS 9. PhotoShop and Illustrator has been released which is a great relief, and soon to be Dreamweaver MX, which I have a beta of. FileMake Pro 5.5 for databases has been release also. DAVE 3.1, which is a God-send makes life very easy when connect to Windows servers and PC's.

All in all, MacOS X is more than ready for working in the Office Environment. I work for the British Government, so if it can work for me, it sure will work for you.

Michael Oglesby
Ti PB 400MHz, 1024MB RAM, 20GB, Airport, MacOS X.1.4

:D
 
mattyb77:

I've been able to mount shares from a Windows 2000 Server machine using SMB in OS X just by using the "Go to Server" command and typing "smb://ServerName/Share" flawlessly without any third-party software.
 
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