Automator and Remote Desktop 3

Armchairgeek, have you ever used or even seen ARD 2.x in use? Certainly, you can use it to execute some Unix tools just like you could by ssh'ing to a client, but the two simply aren't otherwise comparable. Can ssh keep organized lists of computers in classrooms and computer labs? Can ssh help an instructor or student see how to do something becuse the admin or monitor is *showing* them by controlling the screen? Can ssh do inventory management outside of Apple System Profiler--can it, for instance, report to you which computers were turned off in the last 24 hours and when they were turned off?

I could go on, but I hope you get the point. No good lab admin relies solely on ARD or soley on ssh, but rather uses the full suite of tools available to him or her. Apple's nice enough to give us these tools and many of them are all that more powerful *because* of their unix underpinnings, not in spite of them.

BTW, folks, ARD has been around a long long time. It used to be called Apple Network Administrator's Toolkit (ANAT) and I can remember using it way back in 1997 (possibly even earlier). I seem to remember some Apple screen-sharing software running on a lab of Apple IIgs compuers in 1990 or 91 but don't recall the name of the software that was being used but suspect it eventually became ANAT.

...and for the rest of us there is good old ssh.

It's ARD, not RD!!!

Hot stuff. Can't wait to mess around with the task server features.

Thanks for clearning up what this application does and why it is different from Remote Desktop in Windows.

I'm doing just the same... I wanted Remote Desktop so bad at my last job, but they think I didn't need it because we only had a few Macs in the admin dept I was administering.... At my current job it's all Mac, so they let me get Remote Desktop 2 (back in August).. Amazing program!! I love it, it makes things so easy!!! One of my favorites is automating Repair Permissions on all the computers in the network and not bother a single person in the office. I also have fun with some of the younger guys I've buddied up with and lock their screens with funny messages. It rules.

Now they go and release RD3 with 2 of the most coveted features I've wanted (in a RD2 update of course, not another full license purchase of a new version!!)...

Remote Drag-and-Drop!!!
and
Remote Copy Paste!!!!!

There's more new features that some may think are more valuable, but those are such small little things that you would just expect from a program like this, and they almost warrant a full purchase again! (ALmost...)