Mac OS X Status
[last updated 30-Dec-2004]
With Mac OS 10.1 finally available, many people have questions
about the availability of IPNetRouter, IPNetMonitor, IPNetTuner,
and IPNetSentry for Mac OS X.
Since Apple did not provide a migration path for network layer software, most of our software needed to be re-written for Mac OS X.
At Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (May 2001), I decided
to rewrite all of our applications in Cocoa using native BSD networking.
There were many technical considerations involved in this decision,
but they all boil down to a simple objective: we want to deliver
best-in-class networking solutions for the Mac platform.
As we work on re-writing to use Cocoa and BSD networking, it’s important to recognize some differences in the Mac OS X environment. Mac OS X’s UNIX roots provide powerful built-in networking facilities, but many require extensive UNIX knowledge to operate. A significant part of our strategy is to develop effective Macintosh User Interfaces to these facilities, and then add value for Macintosh customers. We see many exciting possibilities with Mac OS X.
As part of this strategy, in October 2001 we acquired rights to gNAT, a simple OS X native Internet sharing tool that uses unix “natd” and “ipfw” and began development work on the product. In early December, we changed the name of the software to IPNetShareX and released a final candidate version which is available on our Download
page.
IPNetMonitorX, IPNetTunerX, and IPNetSentryX are also available from our Download
page.
We do anticipate charging a modest upgrade fee for Mac OS X versions
as they become available to support their ongoing development.
Thank you for your interest and support,
Peter Sichel
Chief Engineer/President
Sustainable Softworks
Dec 30, 2004
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