Likewise Software demo'd its Active Directory integration software for Macs and Linux clients at Macworld Expo last week. The company offers two versions, a free Likewise Open, and the commercial Likewise Enterprise. LikeWise has an Active Directory plugin for MacOS X, which, like Apple's plugin, provides for Kerberos, NTLM, and SPNEGO authentication and single sign-on.
The Enterprise version offers group policy management of Mac and Linux/Unix clients, with full integration with the Group Policy Management Console and Group Policy Object Editor, as well as with Apple's Workgroup Manager, a tool for Mac OS X Server. LikeWise Enterprise also features audit and compliance tools.
Likewise Enterprise includes the Likewise Administrative Console, which enables administrators to manage Active Directory from a Mac or Linux PC.
A Likewise Software representative said that the company's Mac plugin is easer to use than Apple's. Policies are stored in Active Directory. Schema changes are not required; nor is a Mac OS X Server. The current version of Likewise is 5.3, which first shipped last October.
Return to our full coverage of Macworld Expo 2010 cross-platform announcements.