Pre-Press OS9 to OSX Upgrade Documentation

[Fall]

Hiya, any help here would be great!

I work for a print company (pre-press/designer), and since I own a PowerBook at home, I am our new in house OSX expert, but I need plenty of help.

We currently have 4 G4 and one G3 workstations, and its time to upgrade! Hooray! Although we only need four, I'm pushing for a total upgrade to purchase FIVE new G5's...

...what I need to know is, is there any documentation on other companies who have done this? The whole OS9 > OSX thing has been big for a lot of people, and my boss has only heard negative things (especially from our local small town apple sales people! Iditios!) But I am so Pro-OSX so I'm convincing him how good it is...

My main concern is connectivity to PC's, it's supposed to be great but can I hear honestly if its any good? I need the machines to be able to connect to Windows 98, ME and (more importantly) 2000 machine(s)

Thanks folks!

 

[JFreak]

panther's windows connectivity is just as great as you can imagine. basically you just set up a resource in the windows side and then connect to it from the mac side, and it works unbelievably well.

panther actually behaves nicer than windows clients in a windows network, so nothing to fear... panther can log into windows network very easily, and you can see all fileshares & printers the windows network has to offer.

 

[mikepctp]

OSX is a pre-press shop's dream come true. As stated before me, the connectivity to PC environments is slick to say the least; and reliable.

As far as the Mac is concerned, OSX is smoother. OS9 has frequent crashes with large file manipulation due to a different method of allocating memory and CPU usage within the OS and it's relationship to the actual application (or so I understand). OSX is awesome with this issue. You can actually run multiple applications and the OS balances the RAM requirements for each (being a production shop, max the RAM). anIf something hangs; force quit actually works! You don't have to restart the whole computer all the time.

You will need to keep a couple of OS9 machines around unless you update all your software to an OSX level of support (chances are you are there already though). Check your periferal hardware (imagesetters, platesetters, proofing devices etc.) and RIPs to make sure if they are Mac-based; the software support in OSX exists. As you well know; some pre-press equipment companies are slow with updates in their proprietary sofware to support new stuff from Apple. Not that Panther is new but...

Having been in Graphic pre-press for some 27 years now and going through the whole digitization of the biz off of an art table and a stat camera... OSX is a huge improvement to production workflow in a mixed PC network environment as only a tiny part of it's strengths.

Good luck

 

[evoluzione]

upgrading to OS X would be a very good move for you. but take into consideration some of the points already made, you MUST keep at least one G4 around simply to run OS 9. There's still a lot of equipment out there (of which you may well have some) that will not, and will never work, in OS X. if you can, i'd recommend buying 4 G5s and 1 dual 1.25Ghz G4, which will still boot OS 9. I believe a lot of the problem lies in the fact that OS X and scsi don't work together, the streaming isn't good or something with firewire. I myself have to have OS 9 to run my scanner, among other things.

so, all in all, upgrade. just from a speed and reliability point of view it makes sense. being able to do things like burn DVDs internally, have plenty of internal storage, all big pluses i think.

pm me if you want to chat further...

 

[Fall]

Hey thanks guys!

I've used OSX at home for about 6 months now, so I'm sold, but I've now got some well-structured arguments to put forward!

In fact, I took my PowerBook to work, got allthe printers working on it, and connecting to PCs is the onyl hurdle I couldn't overcome (yet). So I'm taking it back tomorrow to do a presentation to the boss...wish me luck!

Oh, our Plate Setter and Colour Proofer are Windows2000 based, printing to them is AOK, but again, connecting to the files isn't happening. They're all running ExtremeZ-IP to connect to our OS9 Macs currently, perhaps its interfering with OSX trying to connect. We're now discussing the possibility to upgrading from 2000 to XP on those machines to aid the progress, TOTAL CROSS-PLATFORM OVERHAUL!

 

[mikepctp]

I use PC-MacLAN to successfully network 2000 pro into OSX and OS 9.2.2. I have it running here (at home) in both XP Pro and 2000 Pro. It isn't really needed for XP and OSX and if you check the sticky at the top of this main topic, you will find the instructions to network via XP (should you do the whole enchalada).

Good luck

MP

 

[7on]

Make sure everything is TCP/IP and it should be cake.

And if you need a home for anyone of those old computers, you can always give me one and right it off tax wise as charitable donation. I'll pay for the shipping of course ;P

 

[Fall]

My G4 400mhz is spoken for.

Can anyone say iTunes server?

 

[ingenious]

My G4 400mhz is spoken for.

Can anyone say iTunes server?

i thot for it to stream it had to be like 600 MHz or something? or was that just for G3s?

 

[Fall]

Oh, I meant just playing mp3 / AAC