Arlington, Texas-based Thursby Software Systems announced today a public beta preview of DAVE 4.0, the latest major update to its Mac to Windows file and printer sharing software.
With Jaguar greatly improving interoperability between Mac and Windows systems in networking environments, many may wonder if DAVE is still necessary, and Thursby makes a compelling case to keep it around. First and foremost, DAVE is still handy if you’re using Mac OS 9 or haven’t updated to Mac OS X 10.2 yet. What’s more, Thursby said that DAVE enhances the SMB support built into Jaguar for even more versatility in heterogenous networking environments.
DAVE stores files in Microsoft NTFS format, which Mac OS X 10.2 does not, according to Thursby. “This is an issue of primary concern for customers who have previously used DAVE or Services for Macintosh, since their information may not be compatible with Mac OS X. Plus DAVE does not create those annoying dot underscore files,” said the company.
DAVE also uses Microsoft’s standard protocol for network browsing, and supports NT Domain Login, while Mac OS X 10.2 requires users to authenticate each time they mount a shared folder. DAVE can also mount multiple shares with a single click.
DAVE also offers more robust security, according to Thursby, with options for local, share-level and user-level security. Mac OS X 10.2 offers local security only, which leaves Mac users with limited options for securing their Mac within a PC environment.
DAVE 4.0 is set to be released in September.