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We needed some tools for managing Active Directory, specifically something to give us total number of accounts, and another to find inactive computers. Joeware.net has tools to accomplish both these tasks: AdFind and OldCmp (awesome reporting features!), and a couple dozen other command line tools for managing Active Directory, all simple to use and robust in ability. Best of all they’re free! (And no, Joeware is not made by yours truly.)
Wow, Dell has come out with a small desktop computer that looks pretty decent! It’s called the Dell Studio Hybrid, though I’m not sure what it is a hybrid of, it’s still got some respectable features.
I should say that we’ve been using the Apple Mac Mini in our Deli offices, where space it extremely tight, and everyone has been really impressed by them. We bootcamp them into an OEM licensed version of Windows XP and they crank away.
So it’s in this light that this Dell looks good. It’s about the same size profile and costs only 5% more at $629. Similar to the Mini we’d need to get an OEM license for XP separately. CPU, memory, and harddrive are better in the Dell. Warranty, like the Mini, would need to be extended to 3 years.
The only area that the Dell falls short compared to the Apple Mini is that it can’t run Mac OS. I know, that’s perhaps a strange take on it, but we’re not sure that we couldn’t reach a point in the next year or so where we could switch desktops over from XP to Mac OS X without undue pain. The Mac OS machines that we have now tend to be dramatically different in terms of trouble - they tend to not need much support. So, something to think about. We’ll probably give one of these a try in a situation that’s tight on space, like our Bakeshop.
