File Sharing Difficulties Frustrate Tiger Admins 334
rmallico wrote in to mention a story currently running on Eweek about technical difficulties sites running Tiger are experiencing. From the article: "A number of sites running Apple's new 'Tiger' operating system are experiencing problems with SMB file sharing and authentication with Microsoft's Active Directory, Ziff Davis Internet News has learned. Although Apple Computer Inc.'s Tiger increases support for Server Message Block file sharing and Active Directory, several sources say that the Finder fails to log on to Windows and Linux Samba file servers."
Opposite Experience (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Here's a bet: (Score:2, Interesting)
but THIS? Has nobody there ever tried to connect to a SMB sever? It's kinda strange. Annoying. Every OS has this, everyone.
But I can imagine how this is, I can imagine this very good. The coders will say, we need to the test, the managers say, we need to release, and of course the managers are right, they get their bonus, because the release in time, and the coders then get the blaim for the code errors.
Perhaps IT needs a revolution.
Re:Samba supports it (Score:2, Interesting)
I find this interesting, because at the university where I work, the security policy requires centralized AD authentication from all computers in the network. After that I've hardly seen any Linux PCs or Macs around anymore. When I asked about it from one of our IT guys, he said that you can't authenticate non-Windows computers with MS Active Directory.
Re:A typical slashdot response. (Score:3, Interesting)
The fault here is in interoperability with a Microsoft SMB share (no such problem with NFS) and there is an easy work around (you just point to the share directly).
Had this been about microsoft products not connecting to a SAMBA share properly
Re:Oh, right, error code -36! (Score:5, Interesting)
-36 ioErr I/O error
It'll point you in the right direction I guess, but it's by no means a definitive description of the error.
I must admit that I'm a little baffled as to why Apple don't include better error reporting and descriptions in OSX. It is because they are still assuming these kind of errors will only be seen by techs that know what they mean, or are they still living in a world where they refuse to acknowledge that Macs do throw up the occasional message to the user?
Re:Oh, right, error code -36! (Score:5, Interesting)
Finder and Linux Sambda shares (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't use samba anymore (Score:5, Interesting)
I also was annoyed the fact when I turned my powerbook on after it went to sleep it would give me a lot of errors about unmounting a network drive. This also was the case with tiger. With nfs, those problems are gone an nfs mount will stay active after the powerbook comes back from sleep.
Re:Finder and Linux Sambda shares (Score:2, Interesting)
Cheers,
--
Arkan
Re:Oh, right, error code -36! (Score:3, Interesting)
I seem to remember the slow booting thing was the cause of the infamous 'throwing the prototype Mac down the stairs' Steve incident, although it's even more likely that I'm wrong on that one.
Should all new software have bugs? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the car analogy is (for once : ) a good one. We have come to expect failure from Software, and that shouldn't be the case - it should be very rare, not inevitable with each new release. They did rush the release of Tiger, and certain things suffered for it. Yes they will probably fix it quickly, but it'd be nice if they had a more extensive testing program, with sufficient time alllotted to do the QA work, for catching regressions like this.
Re:Oh, right, error code -36! (Score:4, Interesting)
As a programmer I will often give me error numbers because when I need to fix it the error numbers help me find it in the code quicker. And when I give more detailed error messages. The users will try to analysis my message outside of the context of my code and try to fix it them self. So if I put an error message "Out of Allocated Memory" except for error 49112, the user will go out and buy some more ram hoping it will fix the problem except for going to me and saying hey I have an error 49112 where I will know that I will need to change my code to either be more memory efficient in an area or allocate more ram.
It is not a situation that the User is an idiot it is that they may not have the context of how things are running in the programming level. So when they see an IO error they will go trying to fix there network cards, reinstall their printers and other drivers before reporting the problem with the program.
Re:Some predictions (Score:1, Interesting)
So here's my take. I think (s)he does work for Apple. Now, any ordinary Apple employee would not have held onto his/her job for so long after so much Slashdot discourse, due to (1). But what we have here is no ordinary employee.
Who does Apple want to sell Macs to right now? Everybody, sure. But some folks are more amenable to switching than others. Windows users in general hate their computers, but not because of Windows insamuch as they hate the Microsoft 2-year upgrade cycle; they loathe having to "relearn their computer" at those fixed intervals. Luna and Outlook 2003 (yuck) notwithstanding, Windows/Office transitions are a hell of a lot easier to swallow for your grandma than switching to OS X. There isn't much Apple can do about that; we, their customers, want them to make NeXTSTEP++, not Longhorn or Blackcomb. Heaven forbid they ever start trying to "bend" OS X to be more Windows-like to get the switchers.
So your mom won't necessarily buy a Mac, and Apple cannot change this. But who will buy a Mac? Linux users, BSD users, Unix users in general. Apple does, in fact, occupy the space in the market that once belonged to SGI. Like SGI, they provide a system with (proprietary but damn good) value-adds for niche markets. But unlike SGI, their machines and software are affordable, often more so than the Wintel platform, and those add-ons (Aqua, Quartz, Spotlight, Finder when it behaves) make the system amenable to users of all skill levels, not just people with root. All the better to make root switch. And if root switches, grandma will eventually follow, because root makes software which grandma will use. Or so goes the theory. (Yes, even Linus uses a Mac now [zdnet.com.au], but not for OS X.)
So here's my theory: Since root's
What about (1)? If ASOTV really worked for Apple, and needs not to conceal that fact, as in (2), why the secrecy? Because while Apple may want ASOTV to talk, they don't want their other employees to. This is the essence of the secret agent! And this secret agent probably is somewhere between PR and engineering, which is why his/her information is sometimes stale, which would explain (3).
So, I say, let him/her do her job. Since most Slashdot users bash Microsoft on a daily basis, then either resume using or dual-boot into Windows XP, I think there is some nobility in the goal of getting those folks to give the Mac a spin. So, there you go... take it or leave it.
"Of all those in the army close to the commander none is more in