[K12OSN] Apple Folks

[Ryan Collins]

On 6/10/05, Shawn Powers <spowers at inlandlakes.org> wrote:
> marksarria at socal.rr.com wrote:
> > I too will be setting up 2 Mac labs, one for our graphics art department
> > and another for an online English course. It would be helpful if the
> > ideas were posted for all to see and comment about or add to...
> 1) I currently use NIS, but plan to switch to LDAP.  Is it possible for
> OSX to authenticate to an LDAP server?
> 
> 2) How about mounting /home directories?  Can the user's directory be
> pointed to an NFS/SAMBA/ETC sharepoint, or do you just have to figure a
> way to mount a document folder on their desktop?
> 
> 3) Is a program like DeepFreeze required when using OSX?  If so, does it
> work well with network authentication & directory sharing?

Since you are putting in 40-60 machines, I would investigate
installing an OS X server. It would allow you to manage your clients,
and you could use Open Directory to manage your users. K12LTSP plugs
right into this situation for authentication. I think you could also
NFS mount the home folders from your LTSP server and re-share them as
Apple Fileshare points for your OS X clients.

Workgroup Manager makes it a breeze to manage your machines, you can
set setting on a user/group/machine basis.

> 4) Anyone know if files saved in Microsoft Office 2004 (on OSX) can be
> edited in openoffice?  How about going from Office 98 (on my OS9
> machines) to Office 2004?  Do the 2 versions of MS Office play well
> together?

That shouldn't be a problem, I'm pretty sure that Office 04 and Office
98 use the same file format. Since you have OS 9 machines, with an OS
X server you can also manage those, hand have the users home folder
follow the user.

> 5) If a user's /home directory is mounted on the eMac, can abilities
> still be locked down?  (ie, changing things in the hard drive, or
> setting the background, removing dock items, etc)

I only have experience with adding a LTSP server to an OS X network,
but by default, when a network user logs into a mac, they don't have
access to the hard drive, but if the home folder is setup correctly,
they can modify user settings such as the background and the dock.

Go to Apple's website and check out some of the stuff you can do with
an OS X server. We have 4 different platforms in use (OS 9, OS X,
LTSP, and Windows) and they all integrate into OS X's OpenDirectory. A
student can use any machine, and they have their own home folder. In
fact, some program settings follow them when they move from LTSP and
OS X (such as with jEdit).

If you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail!

-- 
Ryan Collins
Technology Coordinator - Kenton City Schools
http://www.kentoncityschools.org/