Getting way off topic...
Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Let me know if I'm wrong on this but don't you have to purchase this software spep? And its not really designed around the home consumer. The software is business oriented.
In the case of XP its built into the OS ready to use out of the box. In fact non XP systems, even Mac I believe as long as you are using a TSC, can remote control an XP system out of the box.
No, it is built into XP
Pro out of the box. Though the client can be used from almost any version of Windows
and even Mac OS X!
Yes, you have to purchase the software mentioned (
Apple Remote Desktop). No, the software isn't business-oriented, it's mostly targeted toward mac labs and classrooms where an administrator/teacher's computer can remotely monitor multiple Macs and later marketed for business. The costs are quite reasonable ($300 for 10 clients, $500 for unlimited--note Apple's idea of a "client" is a server in the windows world because the usage is typically reversed in the above settings). When you consider that in the Windows world you need Windows NT4, Windows 2000 Server(?), or XP Pro for every machine that runs as a server... the costs don't scale nearly as well.
While I find your VB and ActiveX/COM examples apt (and telling too, this is partly why Windows is fundamentally insecure), I found the others poor examples of the strength of Microsoft products. (There are strengths... just not necessarily in the areas you mentioned.)
Your first example was done long before Microsoft stole the idea. Look up Norton
pcAnywhere and
Citrix who have had this feature for a long time. In fact, RDC/Terminal Services is your typical Microsoft tactic of using bundling + monopoly abuse. Nothing new here.
Any old Mac head can tell you that there has been
Timbuktu around for ages to be in the exact same situation you mention. The difference is that Apple Remote Desktop is priced and marketed to a different market so as to not wipe such a five-star product out of business.
Personally, I use
VNC which allows me to control my Linux servers from my Mac (
many mac clients) (or my
Palm) and remotely control my
Macs and it supports Windows too. Heck there is a Mac version
specific for the use case you mentioned. Total cost $0. Note you need to come up with another solution for file transfer (no problem... in the Mac world you can choose your poison: WebDAV, FTP, or AppleShare.
True, Apple doesn't implement ClearType since that's a trademarked term for subpixel rendering which Apple does implement. It's the "Medium - Best for Flat Panel" settings on your General preference pane. You can also do regular anti-aliasing and it seems to work in more situations than the Windows version. Again, not a good example.
If you think VB and COM are easy to write you should try
AppleScript Studio and
GUI scripting. Again you don't have to spring a single $ for the developer tools. Though I give you points because more of the features are exposed in COM than your typical AppleScript dictionary, of course it can be just as tricky to program as using someone's Cocoa library and all the good stuff from Microsoft has a nasty tendency not to be documented...
The SQL server is a bad example--talk to your DBA. Besides, I'm morally against using stored procedures because it locks you into a particular DB vendor, forces you to learn some obscure non standard SQL, and mixes data and application logic. Your example would be better served in a LAMP or MAMP platform. It sure costs a lot less to.
I agree totally with your VB + COM example. I'll add too that a lot of people are familiar with the Visual Studio development environment which adds a lot of value to this situation. However, the application you mention would be better served by running a
Jabber client/server since it wouldn't require any coding, is free, and has no vendor or platform lock.
Take care,
terry
), and they were using Macs all over the place.