Stairways releases Assimilator 2.0.2

Perth, Western Australia -- 3 March 1999 -- Stairways Software, Pty
Ltd, today announced the release of version 2.0.2 of Assimilator, an
elegant and powerful laboratory administration tool.

What is Assimilator?

Assimilator is the product of years of managing student laboratories.
It is designed for situations where you wish to make a large number
of Macintoshes look virtually identical. Assimilator mirrors an
AppleShare server folder on to the client machines to make them all
look almost identical.

Since you generally do not want the machines to be exactly identical,
Assimilator provides a mechanism for building a database of your
machines, allowing the owner name, machine name, harddisk name and
most importantly the IP number of the client machine to be configured
automatically. It also has a method for customizing machines on an
individual or group basis.

Although Assimilator is designed for student lab situations, it has
also proven useful in other circumstances, such as for setting up
newly purchased Mac OS computers or in testing or demo labs.

Assimilator 2.0 is a major upgrade which incorporates feedback and
feature requests from lab administrators on the Mac Lab Manager
mailing list.

Assimilator is US$10 shareware. Version 2.0.2 is a free upgrade to
users who registered after 1 Jan 1998. Users who registered prior to
1998 can upgrade for US$5 per machine. Site and organisation-wide
licenses are also available for US$500 and US$2000 respectively.

Features

* Easy User Interface.
* Supports any AppleShare server (including AppleShare IP)
* Configurable control over download options using Finder labels.
* Database of machines, including owner name, machine name, volume name and
IP address.
* MacTCP and Open Transport compatibility.
* Password controlled abort.
* Support for multiple partitions and volumes.
* Assimilate from local media.
* Protected execution of administrative scripts.
* Versatile machine or group customization method.
* Extensive documentation and support.

What's New in 2.0.2?

* Fixed problems with Alias resolution.
* Fixed problems blessing system volumes after complete erasure.
* Fixed problems with ethernet addresses containing D7.
* Improved handling of pre and post scripts.
* Improved handling of pre-mounted volumes (espcially via IP).
* Fixed Kangaroo garbage bug.
* Fixed problems with partition sorting.
* Upped memory partition to 700k
* Moved group list to the edit entry dialog.
* Improved "folder "????" not accessible" error message.
* Added AppleEvent support for script-displayed messages.
* Various other minor changes and bug fixes.

What's New in 2.0.1?

* Single log file on the system disk.
* Fixed problems with Alias resolution.
* Fixed the balloon help.
* Fixed import database to work with 1.x databases.
* Fixed bugs with Quick Add and group lists.
* Changed memory allocation in Assimilator to something sensible.
* Various other minor changes and bug fixes.

What's New in 2.0?

* Powerful new customization features.
* Handle multiple partitions.
* Restrict to portions of volumes.
* Support AppleShareIP over TCP/IP.
* Support assimilation from CD and local volumes.
* Execute protected scripts and applications.
* Fixed several bugs.

What Other People Have Said About Assimilator

"Assimilator is my right arm (you could say my 6 or 7 invisible
helpers). I have installed that jewel on over 230 Macs and could not
live without it. It keeps me sane." - Mario Blais, Sep 1997.

"The Mac administrator was EXTREMELY happy to have such a great piece
of software, and he was overjoyed when he saw that you could actually
have a database with all the IP numbers." - Anders Haavie, Feb 1997,
after setting up Assimilator from scratch in a few hours.

"...and said there must be something better...then found Assimilator,
and breathed a sigh of relief!" - Greg Cox, Jan 1997.

"Since Fall of 1995, the Mac labs have proved to be very stable, with
few complaints from students or faculty. We attribute this stability
to the use of Assimilator in the labs, which provides "fresh" systems
on a daily basis." - Student Computer Lab, Mac Support, University of
Idaho.

About Stairways Software

Stairways Software was founded and is run by Peter N Lewis. Peter
started Stairways to distribute his extensive range of Macintosh
Internet applications.

Peter is probably best known for Anarchie Pro, but he also co-wrote
the Internet Config system with Quinn "The Eskimo", he was a
programmer on Metrowerks' Java release and he also authored the most
widely used FTP server for the Macintosh, NetPresenz. Peter is a
prolific author of high-quality Macintosh software.

Stairways Software distributes software using the shareware
principles: try before you buy and minimal or no marketing costs. As
a result shareware costs a fraction of the price of most other
commercial software.

Contact Information:
Peter N Lewis (peter@stairways.com.au)
Stairways Support (support@stairways.com.au)
Press Contact (contact@stairways.com.au)
World Wide Web (http://www.stairways.com/)
FTP: (ftp://ftp.stairways.com/stairways/)
Phone and FAX contact is not available.