[K12OSN] Apple Folks

[Shawn Powers]

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...

Ok, I'll start spewing ideas & questions on the list.  Maybe some of you 
guys & gals will have some insight, success stories, new ideas, etc. 
Here we go:

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?

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?

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)

6) If the /home directory stores everything, so each user has a unique 
environment -- what kind of load on the network does that NFS share 
take?  More than a thin client?


It looks like I had all questions, and no ideas.  :)  (ok, well, the 
ideas sparked the questions, so I'll forgive myself!)

-Shawn