Men & Mice Community

Recently, we have received a number of queries regarding the Mac OS X version of the Men & Mice Suite and we would like to provide you with information on the issue.

The status today
Version 5.6 of the Men & Mice Suite includes the server components for Mac OS X (Men & Mice Central and the DNS Server Controller), but at this time there is no Management Console for Mac OS X. To run the Management Console on Mac OS X, users have several options:

Use Boot Camp to boot into Windows and use the Management Console

Use virtualization software like Parallels or VMWare. PowerPC users can use Virtual PC.

Use Darwine (disclaimer: Darwine has imperfections)

Run the Management Console on a Windows box

If none of these options are suitable, users should postpone upgrades and continue using version 5.1 of the Men & Mice Suite

The Challenge
Since we released version 5.1 of the Men & Mice Suite, a lot has changed in the Mac world. Two significant changes have affected the development of Men & Mice Suite; Metrowerks discontinuation of CodeWarrior, the development platform for the Management Console, and Apple's transition to the Intel processor. These have generated significant challenges for Men & Mice regarding the future development of the Mac Management Console.

Using an unsupported development tool to develop and support the Management Consoleon Mac OS X is not appealing to Men & Mice, and rewriting the application from the ground up is a major task. Using an OS independent browser interface would be the logical choice for the task especially since the Men & Mice Suite already has a browser interface with limited functionality. We are exploring ways to give SMB customers access to the browser interface and you may expect news regarding this issue in the next few weeks.

Whatever the decision may be, it is clear that for the time being Mac users have several options as mentioned above.

We remain committed to the Mac OS X platform and we plan on continuing support for this platform for the foreseeable future.