My MacBook, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection:mac 2.0 (Beta)

Recently I have become a bit of the technology "black sheep" at ORCS Web with my move to a Black MacBook. Due to some internally written software, I was originally required to run Windows Vista on it just about full time (could have run XP, but chose Vista). With my recent move out of the webteam, I've moved fully over to Mac OS X--as this software is no longer needed.

I've made the move to Mac OS X not because I am a "Mac head" and will fight to the death that it is a superior operating system, but for a couple of other reasons. The first reason being that it just runs better then Windows does on my MacBook. I get better battery life and it does not get as hot. This of course is understandable, as it was not made to run Vista nor was Vista made to run on the MacBook--but it was pretty sweet seeing how well it worked. The second reason that I have made this jump is to just learn a new set of tools, a new OS, and a new perspective.

Just this past weekend I started writing my first Mac OS X based program. On the Windows side of things I have been programming\scripting in VB Script and C and then VB.NET and most recently made the move over to writing all my programs (more like "gadgets") in C#. Of course both VB.NET and C# have been from Visual Studio 2005 (and a bit in 2008 beta versions). My first program on the Mac was a tutorial from Apple on Cocoa (Apple's Objective-C based programming environment) using Xcode and Interface Builder. It was truly a beginners tutorial and very step by step, but I learned the fundamentals of programming on the Mac. It was a pleasant experience once I knew what tools to use where. I was not use to having one program for the UI and another for the back-end (although they are highly integrated) but was impressed with Interface Builder.

This has taken my "learning a new platform" to the next level, and I believe will make me better at all things I do--computer-wise anyway.  Along with learning this new platform and set of tools requires you to learn how to make the two worlds "play nice" with each other. One of the key things for me at ORCS Web is connecting to our Windows based (all of them are) servers. The great Mac Business Unit over at Microsoft just released to us the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 (Beta). It has some enhancements over the old Remote Desktop Connection that you can see from the download page. You are supposed to be able to run multiple connections now, although I have not yet figured out how.

The Mac Business Unit there at Microsoft is supposed to be releasing a new version of the Office for Mac sometime in the near future. While they seem to be very tight lipped about when and what it will consist of, I know I will be a happy camper when they are released.