Macintosh OS X - A Smooth Migration

摘要

The Ringling School of Art and Design is a fully accredited four year college of visual art and design with a student population of approximately 1000. The Ringling School has achieved national recognition for its large-scale integration of technology into collegiate visual art and design education and maintains a student to computer ratio of better than two to one. Due to the demand for computing power and the requirement for ease of use, we moved our instructional computer laboratories to the Mac OS X environment in the fall of 2002. OS X has the stability of a UNIX core and an easy to navigate Aqua graphical user interface. We have found that OS X is the best operating system for training future artists and designers. Moreover, at Ringling School, we can now use the Macintosh to run high-end graphics, nonlinear video editing, animation, multimedia, web production, and digital video applications rather than expensive UNIX workstations. As visual artists cross from painting on canvas to creating in the digital realm, OS X based solutions have made artistic expression in the digital realm easy and intuitive. As with any new technology and large-scale deployment, IT managers will need to consider a number of factors as they migrate to Mac OS X. We would like to share valuable information with our colleagues, including tips and tricks we learned from our move to the OS X environment. Our paper will address issues such as instructional computer laboratory configuration, management tools, security, authentication, integration into an existing infrastructure, font management, application support, user training, printing, and peripheral support. We will also discuss the issues that arose and the lessons learned during and after the migration process.