[17] in sw-release-announce
Apple Releases Mac OS X
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ginny Williams)
Thu Jun 7 12:49:20 2001
Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.2.20010607124711.039fdb38@hesiod>
Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 12:47:19 -0400
To: sw-release-announce-mtg@menelaus.mit.edu
From: Ginny Williams <ginnyw@MIT.EDU> (by way of Jonathan McIndoe Hunt <jmhunt@mit.edu>)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Date: March 26, 2001
To: itpartners@mit.edu, macpartners@mit.edu, sw-release-announce@mit.edu
From: Software Release Team; macosx-release@mit.edu
Re: Apple Releases Mac OS X
Cc: infosys@mit.edu, itag@mit.edu, macosx-release@mit.edu
On Saturday Apple released Mac OS X, a new version of the Macintosh
operating system that has a UNIX-based foundation named Darwin with an
updated Macintosh graphic user interface. Information about Mac OS X can
be found at http://mit.edu/is/help/macos/macosx/.
Support Statement
-----------------
Information Systems will not be supporting Mac OS X at this time. Our
tentative goal is to begin support in the July time frame when Apple starts
to ship Mac OS X in addition to Mac OS 9.1 on new computers. The final
date has not been determined, but we will keep you updated through periodic
announcements to this list.
We have done some preliminary testing of most of our IS supported
applications and will be posting results on the Mac OS X web pages listed
above as soon as more information is available. Client/server applications
like COEUS, Adonis, Roles, and Nimbus have not yet been evaluated. In
early tests, SAP has been found not to be compatible. Positive test
results do not constitute a recommendation to move to OS X.
Alternate Support Options
-------------------------
We have created a mailing list named
<mailto:macosx-help@mit.edu>macosx-help@mit.edu and a discussion forum at
http://forums.mit.edu as alternative ways to get help using Mac OS X. We
have also listed useful resources available on the web. You can find these
on the Mac OS X web pages.
Training
--------
IS will be offering Quick Starts, training courses, and transition
workshops once formal support is announced.
Apple will be offering training at the Boston Market Center throughout the
spring, and periodically at MIT.
Release Effort Underway
-----------------------
The Mac OS X transition team has been formed and will be spending the next
few months evaluating Mac OS X within the MIT environment and preparing to
offer support. You can get more information about the release effort by
going to http://mit.edu/swrt/macosx. If you represent a department, lab,
or center that plans to migrate to Mac OS X and would like to be involved,
please contact us at <mailto:macosx-release@mit.edu>macosx-release@mit.edu.
Business and application providers within the Institute need to test their
applications with Mac OS X. Specific technologies that these applications
rely on will also need to be checked for Mac OS X compatibility before
considering an upgrade of critical machines. The Mac OS X transition team
will be working with these groups to assist in this effort.
Known Issues
------------
At this time we have documented a few known issues with Mac OS X. However,
while Mac OS X has a very "Macintosh-like" graphic user interface, changes
to familiar functions like network set-up, printing, and navigating the
file structure will require some retraining. In addition, standard UNIX
services like login access, FTP and telnet services (turned off by default)
will mean that system administrators need to configure systems to ensure
that they are secure and stable.
Current applications that run in Mac OS 9.x will run in Mac OS X using the
Classic environment. As time goes on vendors will release Mac OS X native
versions of their software. Vendor statements, when available, will be
posted on the Mac OS X web page for most applications in use at MIT. Apple
will be maintaining a comprehensive list on their web site.
System Requirements
-------------------
Macintosh OS X requires:
- iMac, iBook, Power Macintosh G3 or G4, PowerBook G3 produced after
September 1998
- 256MB of RAM (MIT recommendation)
- 1.5GB of hard disk space
If you have questions or comments regarding Mac OS X at MIT, you may send
mail to the release team at
<mailto:macosx-release@mit.edu>macosx-release@mit.edu, or to the Software
Release Team at <mailto:swrt@mit.edu>swrt@mit.edu.
Regards,
Ginny Williams
IS Software Release Team
Al Willis
IS Computing Help Desk
