Hands On: Dave 3.1
by Alan Zisman (c) 2002
First published online by Low
End Mac.com, January 7, 2002 Mac2Windows series
Many Mac users need to either run the occasional PC
program or connect
to a
Windows network to share files or printers. But when they
upgraded
to OS X,
they were out of luck -- popular programs that provided these
functions (such as
Connectix's Virtual PC and Thursby's Dave) simply did not work
under OS X.
Until now.
This winter, new versions of both Virtual PC and
Dave have been
released, each
providing support for both classic Mac OS's and OS X in the same
box.
We looked at VPC last Friday and examine Dave in
this article.
Dave 3.1
While emulators like Virtual PC let you actually
run PC operating
systems and
programs on your Mac, many of us have needs that are less
flamboyant.
We may
simply need to connect our Mac to a Windows network so we can
share files and
printers on the network.
With both Macs and Windows systems using the
TCP/IP networking
protocol, it
would seem simple, but it isn't. Macs and Windows speak different
networking
dialogues: AppleTalk and Client for Microsoft Networking
respectively.
(For more
on networking Macs and Windows, see Living in a Windows World)
Dave, from Thursby Software, has long been the
leader at letting
a Mac join an
existing Windows network. (If you've got an existing Mac network
and want to
add a PC or two, take a look at Miramar System's PC MacLAN).
Versions up through 2.5 let Mac users log into a
PC network and
access the PC's
shared folders and shared Postscript printers. Moreover, unlike
products like
Connectix's DoubleTalk (and Thursby's lower-cost MacSoho),
Windows
users could
also access folders and Postscript printers on the Mac(s).
Dave 2.5 integrated itself into the classic Mac
operating system,
appearing in the
Chooser and also adding Apple Menu and Control Strip icons. Dave
2.5 users who
upgraded to OS X were out of luck, however. None of those
features
worked
under the new operating system.
So Thursby went right to work on Dave: The Next
Generation. Version
3.0 was
designed to work under OS X as well as classic OS 8.6 or above.
But as other
developers found, Apple's OS X 10.1 upgrade broke everything
they'd done,
forcing them to start over.
Moreover, as Steve Jobs demonstrated at Macworld
New York in July
2001, OS X
10.1 included built-in Samba (a.k.a. SMB) support, an open source
standard for
connecting to Windows networks.
Thursby tossed the unreleased 3.0 version,
replacing it with 3.1
this winter, with
simultaneous support for OS X 10.1 and classic OS 8.6 and above.
In actuality,
these are two completely separate programs.
Dave 3.1 for classic Mac operating systems is a
modest upgrade
to version 2.5.
As with previous versions, it integrates nicely into the classic
Mac way of
working, making working with files and Postscript printers shared
on Windows
systems appear as if they were native Mac drives, folders, files,
and printers.
Select a printer in the Chooser using Dave, and it appears as
a desktop printer.
Similarly, Windows users can access files and Postscript printers
set as sharable
on the Mac -- without having to know that they're really
connected
to a very
different computer system.
The improvements over version 2.5 are subtle: an
improved installation,
fewer
system extensions (with all options accessible from a single
utility), keychain
support, large file support, and Unicode International Character
support. If you're
staying in the classic Mac environment, you may see little need
to spend US$90
on this upgrade (US$150 for new purchasers).
The big news, obviously, is support for OS X.
It's not a simple matter to move a system-level
add-in like Dave
to Apple's new
operating system. It's not just a question of recompiling the
OS 9 version. OS X
has no Chooser, for example. Networking is built on a totally
different base.
It would be easy to recommend Dave 3.x if we
were still talking
about adding
Dave to 10.0. It is possible to add Unix-style SMB networking
support to OS X
10.0, but it's not for the faint-of-heart (or the typical Mac
user).
Mac OS 10.1, however, promises built-in SMB
support. Apple's website
promises:
"We've also added support to natively connect to Windows NT,
Windows 2000
and Unix-based SAMBA file servers with the built-in SMB client.
These servers
appear right in the Finder like any other file server."
Sort of.
The built-in support is just a step up from a
raw Terminal command
line. Click on
the OS X's Finder's Go menu, then on Connect to Server. In the
address field,
type something like SMB://server_name/share_name, and the shared
folder will appear
on the Desktop. You don't know the server's name? The share name?
Too bad;
you won't get any hints from the operating system.
You want to put icons for more than one shared
folder on the Desktop
at the
same time? Sorry -- no can do.
You want to share files or printers on your Mac?
Well, maybe you
can learn how
to do it using open source SMB add-ons, configuring them in the
Terminal. Once
again, this is not for the faint of heart.
Just as the classic version of Dave uses
standard operating system
tools like the
Chooser and Control Strip, Thursby made the OS X version
integrate
into the
operating system's System Preferences and Finder. With Dave
installed,
that
previously unfriendly Connect to Server dialogue gets a new Dave
Network item
-- choose it, and it starts opening up like the Finder's new
Column mode,
showing network servers and shared folders, making it much easier
to use than
Apple's bare-bones version.
Moreover, OS X users of Dave can choose to have
their Mac share
folders with
Windows users, and (new to this version, and in OS X only), many
models of
inkjet printers connected to the Mac can be shared across the
Windows network.
Unlike the classic OS version, however, OS X
users cannot access
shared
Windows printers. Many users may find this a major
disappointment.
As well, there are a number of rough edges to
the OS X version.
For instance, on
both Macs that I tried it on, installing both the classic and
OS X version resulted
in an error message shutting down, restarting, or logging off
OS X -- there was a
complaint about the Dave Shutdown item installed by the classic
OS version.
Booting to OS 9 and using the Extensions Manager control panel
to turn that off
fixed it.
Thursby's email tech support was very helpful
and hinted that
the company is
hard at work trying to bring the OS X version's printing support
up to the level of
the classic OS version.
If you're not sure if it's for you, the company
has fully functional
time-limited
evaluation versions of both the classic and OS X versions
available
for download
from their website.