Aladdin Project: Organizing the Assembly and Provision of Resources to Mac OS X Users using Distributed File System Technology Leung Hoang Graham Laverty Samuel Wong Supervisor: Dr. Craig Scratchley

What is Aladdin? Distributed System providing seamless access to online “soft computing resources” to Mac OS X users Distributed Seamless “Soft computing resources”

What is Aladdin? Easy instant access to a wealth of resources (from programs to fonts) Simply run the Aladdin installer (very quick) Then all provided programs/resources instantly available No need to locate or install software

Seamless? “Soft computing resources” appear to have been shipped by Apple with the OS No need for a manual install process. Just double-click a file to automatically load it in the right application! Fonts automatically appear in word processors programs and text editors

What Resources? What “soft computing resources” will be hosted? Applications Fonts Sounds Pictures Many Other Possibilities

Why Mac OS X? Mac can easily scan network resources Expanding to Linux is a possibility, at least for some resources Other platforms can still use Aladdin Can use as a distribution point (images, sounds) Delivery and usage of resources is NOT seamless

Project Goals Establish Aladdin as an international distributed system hosting “multilingual” resources for the global Mac OS X community Promote collaboration from a diverse spectrum of individuals and organizations regardless of language, culture, nationality

Project Goals cont. Improve the user experience for Apple end-users, increasing options and computer usability Catalyze development in distributed file system technology Inspire development of similar resource networks for other platforms

Distributed Network UNBC SFU UVic Prince Rupert

Administrative Difficulty Size and Scope of Aladdin Resource Administration Managing and maintaining a diverse number of applications and resources can quickly become overwhelming for a small team  stagnation Server administration of volunteer servers can quickly become time-consuming Also this can help overcome linguistic barriers

Resource Administration Top-down hierarchy OpenAFS provides only flat administration Web-based application, written using Apple’s WebObjects Framework Makes it easy to administrate resources, and further delegate/subdelegate responsibility to new admins

Resource Administration Root Administrators LibraryApplications Fonts Web Browsers Sounds Word Processors Latin Cyrillic Jim (Canada) Anna (Russia)

Resource Administration… A now time for a little demo…

Server Administration 3-tier Java-client WebObjects application Likely a “shallow” hierarchy Server Administrators are organized geographically or linguistically, etc. Individual organisations can add many servers

Server Administration Aladdin Simon Fraser University All Content Shaw Telus English Content English Content Hiro (Japan) Japanese Content Joe Shaw Customer Astrolyte Suki Telus Customer Kanji Font

Benefits And Solutions from a Business Perspective Who benefits most? Apple end-users Apple Incorporated – drive apple sales ISPs (Telus, Shaw, Bell, etc.) Can offer extra value to their clients Encourage upgrade away from dial-up Universities Researchers Students (computer labs) Staff

Benefits And Solutions from a Business Perspective cont. What about commercial entities? Company’s Servers Employees Replicate subset of Aladdin’s content Charge for support?

Benefits And Solutions from a Business Perspective cont. Other benefits to commercial companies? Saves system administrators time Latest version of software quickly available Security updates done automatically – no need to update or patch Aladdin is easy to use Less time needed for technical support Minimal setup, no ongoing maintenance

How to commercialize…. Subscriptions Software companies can submit limited software to Aladdin They get free public exposure We get a share of the revenue from licenses sold Advertisements Website, forums

A Collaborative Effort Root Administrators Server Administrators ISPs End Users Companies Organizations Open Source Community

A Collaborative Effort cont. Root Administrators Resource Administrators Apple End Users Suggestions

Summary Aladdin is easy to use, seamless, and instantly gives you access to large number of applications and resources

Thank you! Questions?