Multiple machines, one document.

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andersanders
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I am soon to become the proud owner of yet another mac besides my iBook and my server. It will either be a mini or a Powermac. I have used my server as a back up machine for my iBook but now that I will be working on two machines I wonder if I could do it smarter.



I want to have my documents on the server but be able to edit from both computers. It wont be a problem from my new desktop, I just mount the drive of the server on it and go from there. But what when I have been out of range with my iBook and want to update the documents and add the new ones?



I would really like it to behave like a self-updating .mac folder but is it possible to my own server and will I confuse it when it is updated by two computers? Am I making any sense here?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yeah, two solutions come to mind:



    1) Subversion. It's a version control system that lets you keep files in sync, with documentation of changes if you wish. Pros: Free, files are always available on all machines simultaneously. Cons: Need to set it up yourself, and checkout/checkin changes manually.



    2) MacOS X Server's Backpack (is it still named that?) feature. Pros: Ready out of the box, supported. Cons: $499.
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  • Reply 2 of 5
    rongoldrongold Posts: 302member
    Or... you could wait for new .mac features that will certainly become available with the new SDK. I just started a thread about this a couple days ago but no one responded.



    Anyway; I did some checking and you can read what I discovered over at:



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=56060
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  • Reply 3 of 5
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Kickaha: Thanks, but if I understand it correctly both solutions are WAY overkill for my purposes. One because of the cost and the other because I am talking about word, excel etc. files, not the next PS killer :-), But I will look for X Server student discount since I discover more and more small nifty functions, even if my grande network will consist of an old G4, an iBook and a Mini :-)



    Quote:

    Originally posted by rongold

    Or... you could wait for new .mac features that will certainly become available with the new SDK. I just started a thread about this a couple days ago but no one responded.



    Anyway; I did some checking and you can read what I discovered over at:



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=56060



    I know what SDK means but I get off from there. Protocols build on top of .Mac? Isn´t it the other way around (.Mac being a user friendly way of using protocols that makes them accessible for the average user but also restricting their use)?



    Do you have some more info somewhere about the SDK?
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  • Reply 4 of 5
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Thinking about it the SDK probably aim to integrate 3rd apps to the .mac services. What I want to do it to take some of the functionality from the .mac part of OS X and integrate it with my own server (and make it work with more computers). The exact opposite of what (I imagine) I can do with the SDK.
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  • Reply 5 of 5
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Well Subversion can be used for *ANY* files. Doesn't have to be code.



    Heck, I use it to keep a constant backup of my dissertation - the code, the papers I download, the dissertation document chapters themselves, the support scripts, the makefiles, the OmniGraffle diagrams... you name it, it's backed up in there. And, I can grab any *old* version of the documents at the same time in case I screw something up.



    Anytime I need to collaborate with someone (ie, keep files in sync when being worked on in multiple places), I use an approach like this. Once the server is up, it only takes a few seconds to set up a new share point. And neither person can screw things up irrevocably. Considering that I don't trust *myself* not to screw things up, this is my favorite approach for important files that I'm working on solo as well.



    Think of it as a backup with a history. (The history changes storage is pretty efficient too, so it's not like you're storing N copies.)



    Oh, and as far as I can tell, they killed the Server Student Discount with 10.3. If you find differently *PLEASE* let me know.
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