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5 Responses to "QotD: Mac"

1. | Reply Art
   Posted 24 Jan 2004 at 11:08pm #
   

   Color.

2. | Reply Mike
   Posted 25 Jan 2004 at 10:01pm #
   

   Granted, you put the suggestion in my head, but I think I might have to agree with you:

   X!

   My first mac was a performa 6115CD, I don't remember what OS it came with, 7 or 8 something, but even though I said it was better than Windows, looking back on it, it really wasn't. It was incredibly proprietary, and from what it sounds like, wasn't as much to dig deep and mess around with.

   But now that OS X is here, I truly believe that as a Mac user, we are the lucky ones, our system actually is better. I use windows all day at work, and while I think that Visual Basic is awesome for trying to make the windows programs I use every day useful :), I think most of problems I'm trying to automate shouldn't be a problem in the first place, and they aren't when I come home to my Mac.

   Right now, I'm sitting on my couch writing this on my Powerbook using Airport Extreme, while earlier I was logging onto the web through bluetooth through my Sony Ericson T610. Number of restarts involved, 0, number of configuration changes to change the network settings, 0.

   I just installed iLife the other night, I haven't gotten a chance to use it much, but it's a HELL of a lot faster than previous versions and unbelievably powerful yet simple to use.

   Later, I'll use Virtual PC to log into my company's firewall (and that's only because my company refuses to use industry standard authentication that's already built into Panther).

   But if I didn't feel like spending the money on Microsoft products, I could just double click on my Open Office icon which would automatically open X11 or use Gimp for anything more complicated than what iPhoto would let me do.

   I LOVE IT!!! My powerbook is worth EVERY cent of the $2,500 I paid for it.

   ...and I havne't even mentioned my iPod, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, my Superdrive..................

3. | Reply andy
   Posted 25 Jan 2004 at 10:09pm #
   

   mike: Out of cursiosity, what VPN protocol does your company use? I don't know any which isn't supported on Panther, so it puzzles me that you have to use Virtual PC for something simple like that.

4. | Reply Mike
   Posted 26 Jan 2004 at 10:08am #
   

   Checkpoint Firewall-1.

   I think it doesn't work because it uses X-Auth or something like that, I don't really know all the details. I just now that they used ot have a Mac OS 9 client that never got out of beta, and that was that. Obviously, I'm biased, but how hard could it be for them to make a Mac client?

   Supposedly you can get it to work with VPN Tracker...IF YOU TURN OFF AUTHENTICATION! And since that worried my sysadmins, I'm stuck doing it through VPC.

   On the plus side however, the performance through Terminal Server is actually faster than running programs on my Powerbook through VPC. When you think about it, this isn't that suprising actually, since our server is much faster at running the programs I use and then all it has to do is send graphics back. Not to mention the fact that all of the database calls from Crystal Reports are all on my company's LAN which makes things go much faster.

   Sure, I'd love to just use the Mac native version of Microsoft Remote Desktop Client, (which I do use when i'm at work behind the firewall), but I suppose this will have to do for now.

   I didn't even think anyone was going to read my ramblings 🙂

5. | Reply Mitch
   Posted 24 Mar 2004 at 2:48pm #
   

   Yes. What's with Checkpoint? My company uses it for vpn and I have Mac os 10.3.3, as do others in the marketing/web department that need to network from home. Tried using VPN Tracker and made it through checkpoint verification but couldn't access behind company firewall. Stuck using VirtualPC (PII emulation, but feels like PI). C'mon, Checkpoint! In case your strategists think there's no market for a Mac client, try putting in "Mac OS X Checkpoint" and see the gripes.

   By the way, can't use my url because Comcast charges extra for static i.p., which burns me to no end. I suppose every isp provider does that now. Used to be part of any subscription package up until about a year ago.