comp.sys.mac.advocacy

ZnU wrote:
> In article ,
> Steve de Mena wrote:
>
>> ZnU wrote:
>>> In article <9sCdnRM7q5iZzXranZ2dnUVZ_o-mnZ2d@giganews.com>,
>>> Steve de Mena wrote:
>>>
>>>> ZnU wrote:
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>>> "In the case of NetInstall, the computer boots directly from the
>>>> server, using Apple¹s NetBoot technology but launches into the Mac
>>>> OS X installer application and overlays the computer¹s local hard
>>>> drive with the disk image instead of loading the Mac OS X
>>>> environment."
>>> This is how NetInstall generally works. However, as Alan pointed
>>> out, there's nothing preventing a competent OS X administrator from
>>> creating a NetBoot image which, instead of re-imaging the entire
>>> hard drive, does something totally different.
>> Yes there is something preventing them from doing this - Apple's
>> Image tools, which create OS X images, not "something else".
>
> Do you understand how Apple's remote imaging works? The remote system
> boots off of a network disk image which is set up to, upon competition
> of the boot process, launch a utility which clones a *different* image
> to the machine's hard drive.
>
> You can modify a bootable network disk image to do something other than
> launch that utility. Like, for instance, install packages.

I have to see that. Are there any packages out there? Has anyone
actually DONE it, or just read docs that tell you how to do it (by
people whom we don't know if they have ever done it themselves).

Why don't vendors or software developers provide their apps in this
ready-to-deploy format, if it is so great? (I am thinking of VMWare,
where you can download hundreds of ready-to-run images)

Steve