Comment Re:vnc (ADR != VNC != Timbuktu) (Score 1) 52
VNC is nice, granted. (And this deals with secure tunneling etc.) Timbuktu is similar to VNC (and predates it by many years), but slightly different (and I have no idea if TBK2 encrypts the streams) since it's never been focused on the UNIX community, so it doesn't deal with things like X11.
ADR, in spite of the name, has more to do with system mangement than screen sharing or viewing. Screen sharing and viewing sure demos better than a progress bar that indicates the status of your multicast push of a software package to 15 macs simultaneously, so I can understand why Apple chose the screen sharing feature to focus on. :-)
If ADR really is the OS X version of Apple Network Assistant, then the screen sharing is probably one of the least important features. ANA could easily generate reports so a Mac net admin could quickly inventory all of the Macs in the network to find out things like which ones had less than 128 MB of RAM, or which ones had LaserWriter driver version 8.7.1, or had their color depth set to 8 bit, or just about any other info you could imagine wanting to find out.
For classroom or training environments, the screen sharing is nice because the management station can actually push out it's own screen to all the clients (multicast, of course) so you can keep the students focused on watching a shared screen rather than playing around on their computers (for example). (Also it's kind of fun to be able to speak into your mic and have it come out one or more of the clients' speakers... "BACK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER!!")
Having said all this about Network Assistant, it does have some downsides. First of all, trying to sycnh up a bunch of (non-preemptive-multitasking) Mac OS 9 clients while they have users doing actual work so you can multicast-push a new file out to them has been a pain. Being able to schedule these kind of things would be nice too, as would better handling of failures (say one Mac doesn't get all of the file for some reason). Hopefully ADR addresses some of these concerns.
Not trying to flame anyone, just trying to clarify why "Mac Managers" care about this app and how it differs from Timbuktu and VNC, both of which are also good tools but for different circumstances.
ADR, in spite of the name, has more to do with system mangement than screen sharing or viewing. Screen sharing and viewing sure demos better than a progress bar that indicates the status of your multicast push of a software package to 15 macs simultaneously, so I can understand why Apple chose the screen sharing feature to focus on.
If ADR really is the OS X version of Apple Network Assistant, then the screen sharing is probably one of the least important features. ANA could easily generate reports so a Mac net admin could quickly inventory all of the Macs in the network to find out things like which ones had less than 128 MB of RAM, or which ones had LaserWriter driver version 8.7.1, or had their color depth set to 8 bit, or just about any other info you could imagine wanting to find out.
For classroom or training environments, the screen sharing is nice because the management station can actually push out it's own screen to all the clients (multicast, of course) so you can keep the students focused on watching a shared screen rather than playing around on their computers (for example). (Also it's kind of fun to be able to speak into your mic and have it come out one or more of the clients' speakers... "BACK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER!!")
Having said all this about Network Assistant, it does have some downsides. First of all, trying to sycnh up a bunch of (non-preemptive-multitasking) Mac OS 9 clients while they have users doing actual work so you can multicast-push a new file out to them has been a pain. Being able to schedule these kind of things would be nice too, as would better handling of failures (say one Mac doesn't get all of the file for some reason). Hopefully ADR addresses some of these concerns.
Not trying to flame anyone, just trying to clarify why "Mac Managers" care about this app and how it differs from Timbuktu and VNC, both of which are also good tools but for different circumstances.
