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Important Sites & Software Submission News: This is an update to the Winter 2002 Sites News Bulletin that was published in February. If you are not familiar with the information in the Winter 2002 Sites News Bulletin, please take the time to read it first. We hope that by keeping you informed, you'll be better able to take full advantage of our facilities. Feel free to share your ideas or concerns with us at any time by sending e-mail to sites.suggestions@umich.edu.   In the previous bulletin, we emphasized that we will be adhering to our policy of not automatically renewing course software. The migration from the current Macintosh operating system to Mac OS X by Fall Term 2002 means that currently deployed course software may not be compatible in the new Mac environment. You may need to take some actions to prepare for the change. Currently installed course software will not be automatically renewed and will be removed from Campus Computing Sites after the Winter 2002 term. This is consistent with Sites' established submission policy. Anything that isn't explicitly renewed will not be installed. Renewal is available online. (http://www.umich.edu/~sites/instrtech/software/) To submit software for Fall 2002, applications must be fully functional and written to run natively on Mac OS X. If you plan to hold a class in a Sites Mac lab, you will want to familiarize yourself with operating Mac OS X first so you are comfortable using it in the classroom. After Spring Break '02, a "sneak peek" of Mac OS X with very limited functionality will be available at the Angell Hall computing lab (the "Fish Bowl"). We also mentioned that Apple is shipping computers that automatically boot into Mac OS X -- but include the "Classic" layer, which permitted older, legacy applications that aren't Mac OS X native to still run. Sites Mac's original position was to not include "Classic" in the Macintosh loadset. We have received some feedback and are revising the position. Instead, will be including the "Classic" virtual machine in some computers, with some limitations and many caveats. See the important information below. Also, we now have two G4s available with Mac OS X 10.1.3 and a selection of Mac OS X-native applications. We encourage you to visit the Sites' lab at either Angell Hall or the School of Education and experience the new operating system yourself. If you have course software you'd like to try out, need administrator assistance or would like help "kicking the tires," please don't hesitate to contact Sites Mac at . We would be more than happy to give a show-and-tell or open the machine up so you can install your course software. Important Information about "Classic" "Classic" will be available on the G4s (the graphite colored machines) but not on the G3s, which are teal colored. The G3s will not adequately support the "Classic" layer with their present hardware configuration. Users will not be able to print from applications that run in the "Classic" layer. They will only be able to print from native Mac OS X applications. The version of "Classic" that will be included on the G4s will be very limited in the system components included. It will be, in a sense, completely "thinned out." The "Classic" layer will not be included in the Winter 2003 revision. Thus, any legacy applications will not be supported beyond Fall 2002. Many applications simply do not work well in the "Classic" layer. Some functionality may be lost or the program may not run at all. Sites Mac is not actively supporting legacy applications; if they do not work, we will not be able to provide support. All course software submissions must work as designed (printing excepted), with the same robustness as would be expected running under Mac OS 9. We will continue our policy of not deploying software that has had some functionality removed. Resources The list of applications that are "made for Mac OS X" is growing considerably. If you have course software deployed in Sites, we urge you to find out if it will run natively on Mac OS X. These sites are helpful to find out if your course software is Mac OS X compatible. http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/ http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ Conclusion It's our goal to help you succeed in teaching effectively. This migration to Mac OS X is considerable but there are terrific gains to be made. We look forward to hearing from you -- we consider you a partner in our endeavors. This is a key opportunity to have a direct effect on our direction. If you have questions or want to voice a concern, simply reply to this e-mail or write sites.mac@umich.edu. Additionally, we'd appreciate it if you could pass this e-mail on to your colleague(s) whom you feel may be affected by the migration or should know more about what Sites is doing with regards to Mac OS X. Information Technology Central Services | The University of Michigan Send Comments to: sites-web@umich.edu