Computer science moves toward the Mac
In a sign that Apple's Mac OS X operating system has gone truly mainstream, computer science programs like that at the University of Utah have formally announced classes like "Mac OS X Deployment v10.5" focused on administering Mac OS X.
While a quick scan of computer science courses at Harvard and Stanford doesn't reveal any Mac OS X-centric courses, and a quick Google search doesn't reveal much more, it's possible that the University of Utah, which has several OS X classes, is the vanguard for OS X's classroom uptake and a clear signal of enterprise adoption.
The description of its newest class hints at bigger and broader OS X enterprise rollouts:
On February 9th to the 11th, we will be offering Mac OS X Deployment v10.5, which covers deploying your Macintosh systems initially, deploying the OS systems for various uses, and providing updates and maintenance for the Macintosh system. For any of you who manage large Mac labs or businesses that are migrating to or integrating Macs, this would be a great class for you attend.
Universities, for all their attempts to be counterculture, tend to follow general industry trends. They have to, if they want to serve their customers. If the University of Utah is offering OS X administration courses, it's because there's a market for the classes being fed by increasing enterprise adoption of the Mac.
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Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
yep, more sloppy "journalism".
as the URL self-describes, this is a) an MIS course b) offered by the continuing education dept.
it has nothing to do with compsci, but it does indeed demonstrate that there is a rapidly growing ebterprise market for osx sysadmins.
however, don't be misled by the provonvial location of Utah! ... many key creators of the mac studied there ...
and Utah has long been a leader in advanced kernel research - eg the FLUX exokernels (sadly apple had long given up on any ambitions to modernize Mach ...
it is too bad that the osx ketnel has been allowed to languish because it ignores fascinating new possibilities for improvement, such as the exciting L4 work in australia (eg when a powerful functional language like Haskell is used, then it is possible to generate a proof that the kernel is guarenteed to be safe or secure or some other constructed property. Likewise, the lack of attention to advanced research by apple has also resulted in the lack of a proper model for distributed computing - which requires that the mu calculus or the pi calculus; and of course without a calculus for abstracting how one type of resoutce (in this case, a process & an address space) can be encapsulated in a determinate way (Mach is silent about the interaction model for it's primitives - ports sending messages via IPC - should be calculated), it is therefore becomes problematic to develop/extend/reuse a system-level calculus to support how more sophisticated abstractions - such as agents - should interact.
if apple had in fact continued the logic if Mach - and absorbed the lessons from Utah's exokernel, the L4/haskel work, and the pi/mu calculus for distributed computing - then osx would have obtained heaps if powerful high-level models for agents ... a gap which now becomes obvious when one sees the prospect of cloud computing & edge/mesh networks.
anyways - don't sniff at Utah just cuz it is not "famous" - they have done some creditable basic compsci research, and yes are also now rolling out some mac-friendly MIS.
Seriously, it may not have the name of Stanford or Harvard, but it is a great University.
your webform needs an edit mode!
cuz the composing screen on an iPhone is too small to see aloof one's writing/spelling mistakes :-(
... so the user needs a chance to fix these after submission.
"New IT course inspired by iPhone"
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=17268
Not surprising that you don't understand what CS is. Every post you make Matt, shows how ignorant you are.
At some point, even you might get embarrassed by the drivel you write.
Long live Apple -- our day has come.
Goodbye Microhoo, no one will buy Winblowz 7.
I don't know what is more sad. The idiot author who wrote this article or the Mac fans thinking this is some sort of victory and rejoicing.
- by ldmommy February 5, 2009 4:38 PM PST
- Actually, our Mac OS courses for Deployment and other IT classes can be taken for credit. Matriculated students can take these courses through the Computer Science dept at the University of Utah for credit.
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